After nearly being traded, Johnny Cueto throws eight shutout innings

There was much confusion on the field before Saturday night's Reds-Rockies game at Coors Field.

As game time neared, Cincinnati's scheduled starter and well known trade candidate Johnny Cueto was not seen on the field going through his pregame routine. Instead, long man Michael Lorenzo was spotted warming up, which naturally brought about speculation that perhaps Cueto had been traded less than an hour before first pitch.

Truth be told, he almost was. Or at least that's the story Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal was hearing.

[Related: 27 players who could be on the move before MLB trade deadline]

As Rosenthal wrote on Twitter, Cueto was moments away from being traded to the Kansas City Royals early Saturday evening. However, the deal ended up falling through when one of Kansas City's prospects failed to check out medically.

No trade meant Cueto was back on as Cincinnati's starter against Colorado. However, in another odd twist to the story, during all of that time before the game Cueto wasn't even aware that he was moments away from changing uniforms. When he finally went out to begin his routine, only then was he told by Lorenzen, not a coach or a front office executive, that a trade was even possible.

Yikes.

Clearly there was a communication breakdown somewhere along the lines. That falls in the lap of veteran general manager Walt Jocketty, who's gone through the trading procedure enough times to know the importance of keeping those communication lines open. For whatever reason, that didn't happen here, and understandably Cueto was annoyed. 

Cueto is a professional too though, and he didn't allow it to bother him on the hill. He ended up tossing eight shutout innings in Cincinnati's 5-2 victory, which if it is his final start in a Reds uniform will send him out in style. It's entirely possible the Reds and Royals wlll go right back to work on a trade, though one would think if they were still close Cincinnati would have held Cueto out Saturday just to be safe.

One way or the other, Cueto will get his resolution soon. The MLB trade deadline is less than six days away and the Reds phones will be ringing off the hook.  

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813