After making a grand entrance, veteran pitcher Johnny Cueto ready to help Miami Marlins

If nothing else, Johnny Cueto knows how to make an entrance.

The veteran right-handed pitcher emerged from center field at loanDepot park on Thursday with a Dominican Republic flag draped around his shoulders and Antony Santos’ “Corazon Culpable” blaring throughout the ballpark as he walked — and, eventually, danced — his way toward the mound.

With that, Cueto is now officially a member of the Miami Marlins, with the club formally announcing his signing to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2024 season.

“Probably one of the best entrances I’ve seen,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said. “It gives you a little sense for his personality and his flair. We could use some of that in our clubhouse.”

Ng said the Marlins have had discussions with Cueto and his representatives for “quite some time” this offseason — first just “dipping our toe in the water” to establish a potential line of communication before “substansive conversations” ultimately emerged. Cueto will make $8.5 million this season. The club option for 2024 is $10.5 million, with a $2.5 million buyout if not enacted.

“To me, it’s an honor,” Cueto said. “Just the way the organization welcomed me and the city. It was great. It was a feeling like I was back home.”

Cueto, who turns 37 on Feb. 15, is entering his 16th MLB season. He provides a veteran presence and adds another player to compete internally with a young-but-talented starting rotation.

He’s a two-time All-Star, won a World Series in 2015 and was the runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award in 2014. For his career, he has a 3.44 ERA with 1,812 strikeouts against 619 walks over 2,192 2/3 innings spanning 355 games (353 starts).

He pitched in 25 games and threw 158 1/3 innings last season for the Chicago White Sox and compiled a 3.35 ERA, 102 strikeouts and just 33 walks in his 25 outings, which included one complete game.

It was a needed bounce-back season for Cueto, who dealt with an assortment of injuries from 2017 to 2021, a stretch in which he appeared in just 72 games and posted a 4.38 ERA.

“Just hard work. That’s what you have to do,” said Cueto, who also had stints with the Cincinnati Reds (2008-2015), Kansas City Royals (2015) and San Francisco Giants (2016-2021) before playing for the White Sox last season. “Injuries will be part of the game. We’re made up of bone and flesh, but you have to continue to work hard constantly.”

He adds another layer to a starting rotation that is the backbone of this Marlins team.

Sandy Alcantara, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner at 27, leads the group and has established himself as one of the top pitchers in baseball.

Behind Alcantara is a group of pitchers with potential but still in the early stages of their MLB careers.

Fellow righties Pablo Lopez (who turns 27 in March) and Edward Cabrera (25 in April) as well as lefties Jesus Luzardo (25), Braxton Garrett (25) and Trevor Rogers (25) are all in the mix for five rotation spots as well. Lopez, whose name has been floated in trade rumors and discussions dating to last season’s MLB trade deadline, is the only one from this group with more than 55 career starts and the only one from that group to pitch an entire MLB season from start to finish.

This doesn’t begin to factor in the likes of prospects Eury Perez, Jake Eder and Dax Fulton, all of whom are on the rise. Perez, who turns 20 on April 15, is a consensus top-10 MLB prospect. 21-year-old Fulton and 24-year-old Eder are both among the top-10 left-handed pitcher prospects in all of MLB, according to MLB Pipeline.

Beyond that, there is still Max Meyer, Miami’s first-round pick in 2020 who made his debut last season but is expected to miss all of the 2023 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August. Meyer said Wednesday during an in-house interview with team radio host Kyle Sielaff that he plans to start throwing again in early February.

“When spring training rolls around, I’ll be throwing with all those guys — I don’t know with the team or not — but I’ll be throwing,” Meyer said. “It’s coming up here pretty soon.”

And then there’s Sixto Sanchez, the centerpiece from the J.T. Realmuto trade with the Philadelphia Phillies in February 2019 who has yet to live up to expectations because he hasn’t stayed healthy. Sanchez, 24, hasn’t pitched in a live game since the 2020 playoffs because of an assortment of shoulder injuries. Catcher Nick Fortes said he has worked with Sanchez this offseason and recently caught one of Sanchez’s bullpen sessions.

“He looks good, loose, fluid,” Fortes said. “I like where he’s at.”

Adding Cueto to the mix simply adds to the Marlins’ bounty of starting pitching. That could potentially help the team in two ways.

It gives Miami a viable insurance option for a pitching staff that has dealt with its share of injuries. Cabrera, Luzardo, Garrett and Rogers all missed time last season, and 2022 was the only time Lopez pitched a full season.

It also gives the Marlins flexibility to use their starting pitching surplus to help swing a trade to add another bat to their lineup without cutting themselves too thin in terms of their MLB-ready pitchers.

Wherever Cueto fits into the mix, his focus is on being a steady contributor on the mound and a vocal presence in the clubhouse. Cueto said he will be paying attention to the younger pitchers’ routines as he gets to know them and that “if they do something wrong, I will bring it up.”

“You can never have too much leadership,” Ng said.

To make room for Cueto on the 40-man roster, the Marlins designated left-handed pitcher Daniel Castano for assignment.