Reliever Jose Cuas made his Major League Baseball debut with the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday. For the former infielder turned reliever, Cuas got to realize his dream after being forced to put his baseball career on hold and becoming a FedEx driver in order to support his family during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuas got the call from the bullpen in the fifth inning when he entered the game in relief of Royals starter Daniel Lynch. The 27-year-old reliever inherited a situation in which there was a runner on first base and nobody out.
Cuas ended up winning a nine-pitch at-bat when he struck out Cleveland Guardians outfielder Oscar Mercado to record the first strikeout of his MLB career. Cuas followed that up by getting Guardians catcher Austin Hedges and outfielder Myles Straw to ground out to end the inning.
"It's a dream come true, being a kid from New York, everything I've been through in my playing career, to be here in a major-league stadium with a chance to pitch -- I can't even say I dreamed about it," Cuas told MLB.com after Kansas City's 8-3 loss. "It's beyond my dreams."
While Cuas' debut was extremely impressive, it's been a long road for the 27-year old.
Cuas was originally selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 11th round of the 2015 MLB Draft. In 2017, the Brewers organization chose to convert Cuas to a pitcher after he was drafted as an infielder. Then one year later, Milwaukee made the decision to release Cuas.
Cuas had a stint with the Long Island Ducks, an independent team in the Atlantic League and then eventually signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019. But he was released when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
Cuas worked as a FedEx delivery driver in Brooklyn in an effort to support his family and trained with his brother at night in the hopes of resuming his baseball career one day. Those dreams came true in 2021 when the Royals signed Cuas after he spent some time in the Dominican Winter League.
Cuas posted a 1.74 ERA in 20 2/3 innings with the Royals' Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers, and got called up on Monday. Now he's getting a chance to realize his dreams and they've gotten off to a great start after a long road.
