Giants place Johnny Cueto on DL with elbow inflammation

The Giants have placed starter Johnny Cueto on the 10-day disabled list with right elbow inflammation, the team told reporters including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.

Pavlovic says the Giants’ announcement of Cueto’s injury “came after manager Bruce Bochy spoke with reporters,” so no one has any specifics on how long Cueto will be sideined. But, San Francisco general manager Bobby Evans told Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic that Cueto ”has been dealing with some elbow discomfort going back at least a couple starts.”

For now, the team brought up lefty Andrew Suarez to take Cueto’s place on the roster. Suarez got the start Tuesday night against the Padres.

However, losing Cueto is not what the struggling Giants needed right now.

After having a down year last year in which went 8-8 with a 4.52 ERA 25 starts, Cueto leads the majors in ERA (0.84) and ERA+ (468), and is second in WAR (2.0) and WHIP (0.69) while going 3-0 in five starts. Cueto has given the Giants the ace they have needed after ace Madison Bumgarner broke his left hand at the end of spring training.

Now with Cueto out and Bumgarner not returning until June, the Giants only have Jeff Samardzija, Chris Stratton, Ty Blach, Derek Holland and Suarez in their rotation.