The Cubs announced Wednesday that they’ve exercised their $10.5MM club option over left-hander Jose Quintana and claimed left-handed reliever Jerry Vasto off waivers from the Royals organization. It’s the first of two options that the Cubs hold on Quintana, who’ll turn 30 in January. Chicago also has an $11.5MM option on the lefty for the 2020 season.
While Quintana may not have performed at quite the level the Cubs had hoped, picking up his option was a flat no-brainer, as even in a “down” season (by his standards), he turned in 174 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA ball with 8.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and 1.29 HR/9 with a 43.2 percent ground-ball rate. Durable and largely consistent year over year, Quintana took the ball on 32 occasion for the Cubs, marking his sixth consecutive season with 32 or more games started. Even if he doesn’t return to the peak form he showed with the White Sox, having Quintana on a one-year deal with an affordable club option for the 2020 season is still quite a nice value for the Cubs.
Vasto, 26, made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2018 but appeared in just one game and tossed only two-thirds of an inning before being traded to Kansas City in exchange for backup catcher Drew Butera. Vasto was hit hard in his first season of Triple-A duty in 2017 but has turned in considerably more promising results with Colorado’s top affiliate in 2018: a 3.16 ERA, 10.7 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 0.73 HR/9 and a 43.5 percent ground-ball rate in 37 innings. The southpaw tossed just one scoreless inning with Kansas City’s Triple-A club before joining the Major League bullpen, where he allowed one earned run with three strikeouts and one walk in 3 2/3 innings of work.
At times JQ pitched better than his 4.03 ERA leads people to believe
Yeah. The A stands for “average.” At times he pitched better than that. At times he pitched worse.
Just don’t start in with that mode and median crap.
Yeah. Big up for those other averages. Let’s hear it for the mean!
Just don’t be MEAN.
Yep… Q’s typically un-hittable the first two times thru a batting order, then all hell breaks loose after that.
Major disappointment of a pick-up. He was acquired to be a front end starter and he’s not been even close to that.
Once Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease come up this trade will look real bad
Or they both flop and it doesn’t… I mean, most prospects wind up average at best…
Good job by Cubs to pick up JQ’s option. It helps them keep their depth at pitcher.
Not sure they have much depth actually. What they do have is a lot of mediocrity.
That is depth. Having a surplus of even average pitchers is more than most teams can claim
They had the 3rd best team ERA in baseball.
Was there a doubt? For what they gave up for him he better stay
Yes keep the same bad pitchers as last year!
Go away
Vasto was a 2014 draft pick, has two option seasons left, and might well get stowed in Triple-A for awhile, off the 40, eventually.
That’s great. He’ll still be in Chicago to witness the debut of Eloy Jimenez and MiLB pitcher of the year Dylan Cease. Thanks Theo!
Bryce Harper says he never heard of Jimenez. I’ll take Harper and if Jimenez is any good the print their own Money making machine Cubs will out bid Sox for him
Might want to hold off on bragging about a trade before your return does anything in the big leagues. Both those players are looking really good but players that play well in the minors bust in the big leagues all the time (or get injured).
See: the Chris Sale return
lol
Right you are
Cub fans and White Sox fan don’t show the world your stupid we are both Chicago and when not playing each other not like the N Y teams we are friends.
And see the White Sox finish under .500 again while he chases a ring…
Petrie, was that a typo? You meant under .400, right?
I was trying not to kill his hope too soon
The Sox themselves will do that quickly enough once the season starts…
You mean like how Quintana was in Chicago to witness the Moncada and Koppech debuts this season? You know, the two can’t miss prospects the poor White Sox got for Sale? Lmao… it must suck to be a White Sox fan.
They’re used to it. No biggie.
Hows Moncada working out
Moncada was “the best prospect in baseball” last year. Maybe Jimenez can hit .240!
And they will still suck!
Tough crowd, Moncada is 23 and has two roughly League average seasons. Obviously Sox fans were hoping for more, but still plenty of time for him to figure out the difference between a ball and a strike.
Ignore the Cubs fans, most of them don’t have a clue about baseball.
In a few years, the Cubs will struggle with a bloated roster salary and average talent. The Sox will be the class of the league for years to come.
Maybe class of the division. Eloy looks like he’s going to mash but can he field better than my boy Kyle.
No, actually, he can’t.
The Cubs are right where the White Sox hope to be 5 years from now… If they have the fortitude to spend aggressively
Anyone who knows baseball would see that…