Tommy John surgery patient and horse enthusiast Johnny Cueto just posted to his Instagram account a new update concerning his pitching career:
Cueto had Tommy John surgery on August 2, 2018, making it just shy of nine months since his baseball career was paused. The offseason chatter was that the Giants planned to take it slow with Cueto. Since the team has no expectations of competing for a playoff spot this year, there’s little reason to rush him back.
This generic WebMD Tommy John guideline that I’m going to use here and claim to be 100% accurate for the purpose of making my larger point says that in the recovery timeline, nine months is when “pitchers may throw in competition if they are pain-free and have regained their normal strength and range of motion.