Kansas City Royals’ Cuas navigates baseball roller-coaster to prove dreams come true
Kansas City Royals pitcher Jose Cuas was so laser-focused on the task at hand and his catcher Salvador Perez that he didn’t see his son behind home plate, cute as could be, excited and full of joy, energy, innocence and love.
Four-year-old Jose Cuas III bounded down the steps of the lower bowl at Progressive Field as fast as his little legs could carry him, clapping and yelling, “Go Dada! Dada strikes!” as he got down front by the netting behind home plate wearing a blue Royals T-shirt.
Cuas, a former New York City high school baseball star, had been jettisoned by multiple Major League organizations, converted from an infielder to a pitcher and toiled in relative obscurity in independent baseball. But he endured, and he made his major-league debut for the Royals on Tuesday night.
Cuas’ perseverance combined with the improbable journey might make him one of the most inspirational stories in sports this year, and his personal inspiration, Jose III, jumped up and down through it all as if his legs were tiny Pogo sticks.
Jose III certainly didn’t grasp the magnitude of the moment, but he knew who was at the center of it.
“I’m feeling my body now,” Cuas said in the clubhouse after the game, still trying to grasp the emotion of it all. “This is the first time I actually feel my legs since I’ve been here. So it was fun. It was definitely more than I dreamed of. I didn’t imagine it being like this.”
Cuas, 27, entered in the fifth inning against the Cleveland Guardians and took over in relief of starting pitcher Daniel Lynch with a runner on first base. He went to a full count on the first batter he faced, Oscar Mercado, but got him to strike out swinging at a 95 mph sinker.
The next two batters, Austin Hedges and Myles Straw, hit grounders back to Cuas and he threw to first base. He retired the first three batters he faced in the majors in order with the first out of his career having come on a strikeout.
“This is just — I don’t have any words,” Cuas said. “I’ve practiced these interviews a thousand times in the mirror. And I knew the day I actually got interviewed, I wouldn’t know what to say. So here I am.”
Cuas wasn’t alone soaking up that moment. Along with Jose III, the Cuas contingent in attendance also included Cuas’ girlfriend Anais Pena, their 1-year-old daughter Annalise, Cuas’ younger brother Alex, and Cuas’ parents Jose and Belkys, along with an uncle and a couple of close friends.
“It means the world,” Cuas said of his family being there for his debut. “I know it means a lot more to them, just because they saw where I was at a couple years ago. They saw when I didn’t really want to play baseball anymore. Being that I’m here now thanks to them, I told them to enjoy this more than I would. Because I’m here because of them.”
Cuas’ second chance on the mound
As a high school player at Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, N.Y., Cuas helped his team win the 2012 city championship. He earned All-New York City honors as a shortstop in the process and ranked No. 21 overall in New York.
He then played at the University of Maryland.
In three college seasons, Cuas played in 170 games moving around the infield from second base to shortstop to third base. He led the team in home runs both his sophomore and junior seasons. He garnered a second team All-Big 10 selection, and the Milwaukee Brewers selected the 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-handed hitting infielder in the 11th round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
Things didn’t go as he’d hoped in the minors. By the start of 2018, he’d played in 295 professional games, logged a career batting average of .200 and hadn’t advanced above Single-A.
In 2018, the Brewers converted the strong-armed infield into a pitcher, but they let the experiment go just a few months before they released Cuas in July.
“It’s a crazy story,” said Cleveland Guardians outfielder Richie Palacios, and New York City native. “When I was growing up, he was in high school. He was the best shortstop out of New York City. So we would all look up to those guys because those were guys you want to be like. He went on to Maryland, and I got to see him do really good in college, get drafted and all that. It was awesome.”
Palacios had been a roommate and teammate of Cuas’ brother Alex at Towson University. The two remain close friends.
Palacios, the nephew of former Royals catcher/first baseman Rey Palacios, saw Alex train his older brother and remake his as a pitcher. Alex pitched at Towson and had a mid-90s fastball, but an injury derailed his hopes.
“His brother was a really good pitcher back in college, and he knows pitching because he pitched his whole life,” Palacios said. “He’s kind of like Jose’s little pitching coach.
“It’s pretty cool to have a younger brother that knows so much and Jose who has soaked all that in, even though he’s the older brother. And then to get this far, it’s amazing.”
After Cuas’ debut game on Tuesday night, Palacios came across the field and gave hugs to Cuas and took pictures alongside him and Alex.
“It’s been a crazy ride for him, but it’s amazing to see that hard work truly does pay off,” Palacios said.
Little brother provides big motivation
Cuas is two years older than Alex, but he was a lifetime behind in pitching knowledge.
After the Brewers released him, Cuas decided to continue the pitching experiment with a career-altering twist.
He dropped down to a sidearm pitching motion to more closely mimic the throwing motion he’d used as an infielder.
“The dream was always Major League Baseball, obviously,” Alex said. “It was such a roller coaster. When he got transitioned to a pitcher, he had no idea what he was doing up there. Then drops down an arm slot. That’s when we started working out. When I saw what he had, I’m like, ‘We can work with this to get your dream.’”
Cuas finished 2018 pitching in the Atlantic League for the Long Island Ducks. The independent league features a lot of former major-league and minor-league players as well as those like Cuas — guys still chasing the dream.
He began the 2019 season back with the Ducks, but the Arizona Diamondbacks signed him in May. That season, in the Diamondbacks’ farm system, he posted a 1.60 ERA, held opponent’s to a .192 batting average, struck out 35, walked 13 and converted 10 of 14 save chances.
But when COVID wiped out the minor-league season in 2020, the Diamondbacks released him
“When somebody gets punched in the face, you know, not everybody gets back up,” Alex said. “It was just punch after punch after punch after punch.”
Cuas nearly quit, but Alex refused to let him.
“I said, ‘No. You’re not. Trust me. Trust the process. God has his timing. Let’s get to work, give it all you’ve got. If it wasn’t meant to be, then it wasn’t meant to be,’” Alex said.
Alex continued to train his older brother at night after Cuas would work full days as a helper for FedEx, loading trucks, lugging packages around New York City and making deliveries. Some days, that meant Cuas worked from 6 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m.
Drained and sore, Cuas would either go straight to the gym with Alex or they’d go to a park not far from where they grew up and throw.
“That park we went to, a nice turf field and one light was on,” Alex said. “I’m like, we need to hurry up because this is going to shut off by 11 o’clock. We’re throwing. Every catch play has a purpose to it. Hurry up. Warm up. Let’s go! We’ve got to get to work.
“It’s funny because the last one I caught, I was like, ‘One more.’ As soon as I caught the ball, the light shuts off. One second earlier, I wouldn’t have a face. It’s just using what the city had to offer, and we made it work. We don’t have the best fields. We don’t have the fancy facilities. We have space for you to do what you have to do. Just take complete advantage of it.”
All along, Alex kept hammering home the same message to his brother.
“You’re a big-leaguer,” Alex said. “We’ve just got to make it happen.”
Duck destiny on Long Island
Cuas pitched for the Long Island Ducks again in 2021 after the COVID year and his stint with the Diamondbacks.
In both 2019 and 2021, he played for manager Wally Backman on Long Island. Backman’s managerial experience in the minors includes mentoring big-league stars Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard on their way to the majors.
Backman’s own playing career includes a World Series won with the New York Mets in 1986.
“He came to Long Island and he got better and better,” Backman said. “The Diamondbacks picked him up, and should’ve never gotten rid of him. Then Kansas City picked him up and the story is great.
“I remember when I sent him. Told him Kansas City was going to take him. He said right to my face, he said, ‘Wally, I’m going to pitch in the big leagues.’ I said you go get ‘em kid. A very confident young man. It’s nice to see it.”
In his last two stints with the Ducks in 2019 and 2021, Cuas gave up just one run in 23 2/3 innings. Including 11 scoreless innings with nearly twice as many strikeouts (13) as hits allowed (seven) last year before the Royals signed him on June 23.
At that point, that sidearm delivery regularly unleashed 92-95 mph, and he’d added a slider.
“It’s nasty,” Backman said. “That’s nasty. You don’t see many guys like that. The guys that you do see like that, probably don’t throw that hard. Plus he’s got that slider that’s really good.”
Before the Royals came calling, Backman given Cuas the same message that Alex had: He was a big-leaguer.
“For him to do what he’s done, I thought it was there,” Backman said. “I’m just glad to see it. You know, he’s got to do it himself. I think he had the ability, but I think he showed everybody else what he could do.”
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Who needs a change of clothes?
This week while with Triple-A Omaha, the former FedEx employee, who converted from an infielder to a pitcher and wanted to give up on baseball got the call of a lifetime.
He was going to the majors.
“I called the family,” Cuas said. “I didn’t even know how to get the words out to tell them I’m going to Cleveland. It was a rush. It was 11:45. I had a 1:30 flight to try to catch. No suitcase. No luggage. Nothing. They sent me in my cleats, my glove, go. I had the same clothes that I had on yesterday.
“And I promise you, if you tell me I have to wear the same outfit every single day to be in the big leagues, I will wear the same outfit. It’s worth it.”
He arrived in about the third inning of Monday night’s game in Cleveland. Later in that game, he warmed up in the bullpen. He was so nervous that, when his name was called, he couldn’t find his glove — which was at his feet.
The next day, his family got to meet him at the team hotel hours before the game.
Cuas shared a hug with Alex, an embrace that signified the journey of the past four years,
“He did it,” Alex said. “Dreams do come true.”
Later that night, as Cuas finished his scoreless inning and walked off the field, Alex pounded his chest and thought about yelling to him. He decided he was just a little too far away to be screaming over the crowd. But he thought about it.
“I was there first-hand seeing every single day of the grind. Every single ‘I’m done with this.’ Every single, ‘I just got signed.’ The ups and the downs, the whole roller-coaster.”
After the game, Cuas and his family embraced in a 10-second group hug. And Jose III ran onto the field to hug his father.
“My son, I look at him. Everything I do, I do for him,” Cuas said. “So if I quit on myself, I quit on him. That’s pretty selfish. Let’s give it all we have. One (more) year. Whatever happens. If it doesn’t work out, it wasn’t meant for me. If it does work out, then it was worth it.
“And here we are.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 10:23 AM with the headline "Kansas City Royals’ Cuas navigates baseball roller-coaster to prove dreams come true."
