Chadwick Tromp even calls shimmies for Johnny Cueto.

If Johnny Cueto is moved to another team before Monday’s 1 p.m. trade deadline, the Giants’ fun quotient will take a serious hit.

Few players bring more smiles than Cueto, especially when his entertaining pitching methods are bamboozling hitters — as was the case in the Giants’ 41 victory over the Diamondbacks on Sunday.

“I like to invent during the game, and that’s what I do,” Cueto said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “It comes on the fly.”

Usually, Cueto decides after he gets the sign from his catcher which creative windup he’ll use — a hesitation, a quick pitch, a shimmy or something else in his oneofakind repertoire.

But a couple of times Sunday, catcher Chadwick Tromp actually called for the shimmy, something manager Gabe

Kapler called “really interesting. I haven’t seen a catcher call for anything like that before.”

Cueto and Tromp have built a close relationship this season because Tromp has been able to get in rhythm with the 13year majorleaguer, something catcher Joey Bart struggled to do in Cueto’s previous start.

Cueto gave up one run on three hits in 62⁄3 innings, and three relievers pitched hitless ball the rest of the way. The righthander had six strikeouts, including four in a row capped by a doubleshimmy changeup low in the zone past cleanup hitter David Peralta.

“He did tell me a couple of times to do the shimmy. He asked me to do the shimmy, I did it,” Cueto said of Tromp. “That’s what I like. I like to have fun within the game.”

Cueto is signed through next season. If he remains a Giant through his contract, he’ll throw plenty to Bart, the Giants’ top prospect.

“I will get comfortable with Bart,” Cueto said. “We’ll get onto the same page as long as he keeps learning and learning how I like to pitch and knows my sequence. But it does help to have a catcher like Tromp that you feel comfortable with who knows your sequence.”

Beyond the trickery and deception, Cueto’s biggest value is he’s still getting outs and piling up innings at 34.

“What continues to fascinate me and us in the dugout,” Kapler said, “is how good he is at locating his pitches even with all the variations in his delivery and how much confidence he gets from using all those variations.”

“He did tell me a couple of times to do the shimmy.”

Johnny Cueto, talking about rookie catcher Chadwick Tromp