The Pirates added to the back of their rotation this evening with the $5.25MM agreement with Andrew Heaney. Robert Murray of FanSided writes that the Bucs pivoted to Heaney after first making an unsuccessful push to bring Jose Quintana back.
According to Murray, the Pirates offered Quintana a stronger guarantee than the sum which they eventually agreed to pay Heaney. Quintana declined the offer. It’s not clear what kind of contract the 36-year-old southpaw is seeking. It’s unlikely that Pittsburgh would circle back after landing Heaney. Quintana and Kyle Gibson are the top two unsigned starting pitchers.
Quintana spent the first half of the 2022 season in Pittsburgh. He’d signed a $2MM deal as a buy-low free agent with a then-rebuilding Bucs club. The Pirates hit on the common hope for rebuilding teams of turning a low-cost free agent pickup into a midseason trade chip. Quintana turned in a 3.50 ERA across 20 starts in black and gold. The Bucs flipped him to the Cardinals alongside reliever Chris Stratton for righty Johan Oviedo and minor league first baseman Malcom Nuñez. Oviedo lost last season to Tommy John surgery but could find himself at the back of Derek Shelton’s starting staff this year.
A strong finish in St. Louis positioned Quintana much more strongly for his return to the market. He landed a two-year, $26MM guarantee from the Mets over the 2022-23 offseason. It turned out to be a good investment on New York’s part. While he missed a good chunk of the ’23 season, Quintana was a key rotation piece last year. He fired 170 1/3 frames of 3.75 ERA ball. He chipped in another 14 1/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball in the postseason — including six scoreless in a winner-take-all Game 3 against Milwaukee in the Wild Card series.
Effective as Quintana was last year, the Mets haven’t seemed eager to bring him back. The New York Post’s Mike Puma reported shortly after the Frankie Montas injury that the Mets hadn’t reciprocated the veteran lefty’s eagerness for a reunion. Francys Romero suggested yesterday that the Mets, Padres and Rangers could show interest. The Padres have already added Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart to the back of their rotation. The Rangers seem unlikely to seriously pursue Quintana unless they first offload salary in a trade, as they’re projected within $6MM of the luxury tax threshold. The Post’s Jon Heyman wrote this evening that the Mets have “limited” interest in Quintana because of concerns about his underlying numbers.
That’s presumably mostly about his lack of swing-and-miss. Quintana posted an 18.8% strikeout rate in consecutive seasons. He generated swinging strikes on only 8.5% of his offerings last year. It’s the third consecutive year in which Quintana succeeded despite middling whiff rates. He’s a quality strike-thrower who got grounders at a solid 47.4% clip and has rattled off a trio of consecutive sub-4.00 ERA showings.
Sounds like Quintana is waiting for the Mets to call
He’s not getting that call. 110% tax hit and no options limits roster flex. They have enough back-end SP’s.
Mets say no way Jose
Have to disagree. No one ever has enough pitching. And the rotation is meh. Griffin Canning is an awful signing; Blackburn is coming off a serious injury; Holmes is a project that may not work. Montas is already hurt and I’ll be shocked if he throw 100 innings. Even if Peterson continues off of last year, they need help. (preferably in the form of someone not named McGill – seen enough of that roller coaster, thanks).
If Sproat, Tidwell et. al. aren’t ready they should carry Quintana on their shoulders to Port. St. Lucie.
If he’s looking for more than one year, no one will call.
It depends on his asking. At the Mets’ tax level, the true cost more than doubles, doesn’t it? Even Cohen has a limit.
But if nobody is calling and the Mets offer $2-3 million, he might have to choose between that and retirement.
There’s no way he will have to pick between the “Mets and Retirement.” I always thought this offseason he was best suited for either the Phillies or Braves. Nice addition, won’t cost too much as opposed to their otherwise quiet offseasons.
I’d imagine he’s seeking closer to $8-$10 mil after proving he was still worth $13 mil last season, and he probably doesn’t want to be traded by them again at the deadline.
I think the numbers guys under value soft contact.
Whiffs are great but I’ll take a couple grounders calls and a pop fly on 11 pitches every day.
What’s a grounder call?
I’ll ask autocorrect ha ha.
Meant to type ground balls. Probably typed grounder balls and the phone took it from there.
Took a lot of balls to admit that.
Hope the Angels would sign him
Thier rotation past Kuk is hideous, but its all about Arnie and how he can get in the news
I think Soriano will be good and I’m curious how the young kids do. At some point we need Detmers, Kochanowicz, and Aldegheri to either prove they are MLB caliber or they aren’t.
As long as you have the infield defense. With Story always hurt, Devers at third, Casas at first and an assortment at second, Boston did not want grounders in the recent past. Hopefully Devers will mature and realize it’s best for the team if he is not at third. He looks great in isolated highlights but anyone watching the Sox daily knows without a solid infield, the pitchers get burnt out by late July. If there are no trades and Campbell is not ready, I’d rather have Yoshida in left, Duran who has won me over in center and Ceddane at second. Yes it’s an all lefty outfield but Yoshida in left once his shoulder heals is less destructive than Devers at third. Duran’s speed can compensate. If Cahna is still available, I’d also ink him to play left against lefties and to back up Casas at first.
I would trade Casas. He’s a flake and a poor 1Bman.
So true on numbers guys under valuing soft contact. As a Brewers fan the last decade plus of success has been fueled with so many of those pitchers. Undervalued, soft contact/off barrel of bat guys. They are never paid what they are worth, especially from the Left side.
I wouldn’t overlook how he showed up in the postseason and took that Win or Go Home Game 3 against Milwaukee. I think how you execute when the lights are brightest and the tension turned up to 11 says a lot about you.
Quintana does get results.
Very good results, 3.39 ERA over 411 innings over the last three years
I am not all about Quintana, but from what I am reading, his numbers were better than Montas over the last 2 seasons, the latter of which signed a 2 year $34 Million dollar contract. So that being said, it’s odd that they aren’t at least talking with Jose’.
Personally, If it were my money, I wouldn’t have signed either one of them, and would have concentrated more on getting someone of Ace Caliber, but the fact remains that this whole Mets staff is full of question marks, and the just got worse by losing one of them out of the gate.(or did it?) lol
Stearns makes me nervous – the bargain basement searching drives me nuts. But not as nuts as signing the always injured and frequently mediocre Montas for exactly one million less than Detroit signing Flaherty. 2 for $34m as opposed to 2 for $35m.
Underlying at 3.75 across 170 innings is solid. More importantly I would think achieving those numbers with minimal strikeouts only proves he can ‘pitch’ without having to stress his arm each pitch, reducing the potential for injury. I would’ve signed him before Montos, and if he were willing to sign for 6.5M, is still do it as it would equal last years salary.
Kyle Hart??? Padres are all set now???
“Effective as Quintana was” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.