Health Notes: Quintana, Rangers, Hernandez, Santander
Cubs southpaw Jose Quintana is making progress in his recovery from left thumb surgery, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Quintana had his stitches removed and will start tossing Thursday, according to Heyman. There’s no update on how much regular-season time Quintana will miss, but assuming he does land on the injured list, it’ll be the durable 31-year-old’s first IL stint since he entered the majors in 2012. He amassed 30-plus starts in each of the previous seven seasons.
- Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun suffered a Grade 1 right hip strain and probably won’t be available for the team’s season opener July 24, according to general manager Jon Daniels (via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Fortunately, though, the Rangers don’t expect Calhoun to miss much time. Likewise, they’re of the belief catcher Robinson Chirinos shouldn’t be out long. Chirinos suffered a right ankle injury Monday, but Texas is optimistic he won’t need an IL stint.
- Dodgers utility player Enrique Hernandez, whose wife is pregnant, said Wednesday he would have considered opting out of the season if not for his status as a pending free agent, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. Hernandez is not a high-risk individual, meaning he would not have collected service time had he decided to sit out the campaign. When the season does get underway, Hernandez will look to rebound after his numbers took steps backward last year from a career-best showing in 2018.
- Speaking with Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com and other media Wednesday, Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander revealed he was late reporting to Summer Camp because of a positive COVID-19 test. Santander said he dealt with “mild” symptoms, but he’s now “healthy” and “not contagious.” That doesn’t mean Santander will have enough time to ramp up to avoid an IL stint, but he and the Orioles are hoping he’ll be ready for Opening Day. Santander received his first extensive MLB action last season and hit .261/.297/.476 (97 wRC+) with 20 home runs in 405 plate appearances, gaining an international fan club in the process.
Jose Quintana Undergoes Thumb Surgery
Cubs left-hander Jose Quintana underwent surgery on his left thumb, the team announced today. According to the team’s press release, Quintana suffered a laceration on his left thumb last week while washing dishes at home. The cut required five stitches, and Quintana ultimately required microscopic surgery to “further determine the extent of his injury.”
“The procedure identified a lacerated digital sensory nerve in his left thumb,” according to the Cubs. Quintana will be shut down from throwing for two weeks, and the team will make a further determination on his timetable for a return at that point.
It now seems likely that the ultra-durable Quintana will open the season on the injured list. Remarkably, that’d be the first IL stint ever for Quintana, who has averaged 32 starts and 193 innings per season since becoming a full-time starter in the Majors.
Quintana, 31, would’ve headed into the season hoping for a rebound campaign of sorts after struggling to a career-worst 4.68 ERA last season. The lefty was perhaps hampered, to an extent, by a .326 average on balls in play (career .304 BABIP) and even more so by a career-low 65.9 percent strand rate, which resulted in a more optimistic 3.80 FIP. That said, Quintana has turned in three straight years of an ERA north of 4.00, so a return to his 2013-16 form might not be realistic to expect, either.
The timing of the injury is particularly poor for Quintana, as he’s slated to become a free agent for the first time at season’s end. If he’s able to make it back to the mound in relatively short order, it’s possible that the injury won’t have much of an impact at all. Its fluke nature shouldn’t create the same type of concern that might arise in the case of a more problematic elbow or shoulder issue. But if Quintana misses a substantial portion of the season or struggles due to ongoing complications from an injury in his pitching thumb, he’ll head into what could already be a bleak free-agent landscape for players with some unwelcome red flags. There’s already been widespread speculation that owners will look to recoup some of this year’s revenue losses by scaling back free-agent spending, and entering the open market with any type of injury issue would only exacerbate matters.
As for the Cubs, if Quintana is to miss time early in the year, they’ll need to get creative or hope for some unexpected production from their already thin stockpile of rotation depth. Yu Darvish, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks are locked in atop the rotation, and the team was already hoping for a rebound from righty Tyler Chatwood in the final season of his ill-fated free agent deal (three years, $38MM). Now, unproven Alec Mills becomes the favorite to take over the fifth rotation spot — barring any sort of outside addition.
There are still some unsigned veterans whom the Cubs could pursue on affordable deals — Tyson Ross, Marco Estrada, Clay Buchholz, Jason Vargas, Matt Harvey and Andrew Cashner among them — and teams are now free to trade once again. However, the Cubs have shied away from substantial spending in recent offseasons, and we’re less than a month removed from owner Tom Ricketts’ latest public comments about lack of resources and profitability in the game. A major financial addition doesn’t seem likely, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cubs pick up some depth. The team only included 50 players in its initial player pool submission, so there are as many as 10 spots to work with (plus another if Quintana requires a lengthy IL trip).
Transaction Retrospection: Jose Quintana/Eloy Jimenez Trade
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Eloy Jiménez’s MLB debut. With that in mind, it’s an interesting time to look back at the blockbuster crosstown deal that brought the 23-year-old slugger to the South Side.
Jiménez wasn’t the headlining name of that July 2017 swap. That was José Quintana, with good reason. The southpaw had emerged as one of the game’s most consistent, reliable starters. True, he always played second fiddle to Chris Sale, but he was perhaps the game’s preeminent #2. Over the three-plus seasons preceding the deal, Quintana combined for a 3.47 ERA/3.31 FIP with no injury history to speak of. Equally as appealing, the hurler was controlled at well below market rates through 2020 thanks to an early-career extension.
The appeal for the Cubs was apparent. They had a superlative position player core that had carried them to the 2016 World Series. The starting rotation was already a strength, but one with some question marks on the horizon. Jake Arrieta and John Lackey were each approaching free agency, and it was fair to wonder for how much longer Jon Lester could post ace-level production. Locking in a cheap, young rotation stalwart like Quintana made perfect sense for that season and beyond.
It came at a hefty price. Jiménez, Baseball America’s #14 prospect entering that season, centered the package for the White Sox. Alongside him came another top 100 prospect, flamethrowing right-hander Dylan Cease. It was easy to see the South Siders’ thinking, too. Never able to build a competent roster around Sale, Quintana, Adam Eaton and José Abreu, the Sox had already pivoted to a teardown. Abreu stuck around, but the rest of the core was shipped off for future assets. It was a fascinating, if mutually-understandable swap, with the clubs’ crosstown rivalry no doubt adding intrigue. How have things actually played out?
To some extent, as expected. Quintana has remained remarkably durable and taken the ball every fifth day. That’s been especially useful for a team whose concerns about its long-term pitching outlook have generally proven true. Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Quintana have each been dependable, while big ticket free agent Yu Darvish has had some extreme highs and lows.
Despite a deluge of recent early-round picks on college arms, though, the Cubs haven’t established any sort of pitching pipeline from the farm system to supplement that quartet. On the one hand, that lack of cheap, in-house pitching makes acquiring Quintana all the more meaningful. Yet it’s also played some role in keeping the Cubs from reaching the dynastic heights some had anticipated.
Since the deal, the Cubs have been solid, but not quite at the level one could’ve reasonably hoped for. That characterization also applies to Quintana himself. The Colombian lefty has given the Cubs 400+ innings of 4.23 ERA/3.95 FIP ball. That’s about league average production on a rate basis. With his exceptional durability, he’s a valuable pitcher, especially relative to his contract. But he hasn’t pitched at the level he showed on the other side of town. Now 31, Quintana’s entering the final season (assuming there is a season) of the aforementioned extension. He’s a plausible but uncertain candidate for a qualifying offer next winter, which could allow the Cubs to add a draft pick.
Even if Quintana does net a compensatory pick, that player won’t project to be anywhere near the level of Jiménez. (That, of course, is what the Cubs expected, since there was always going to be a high price to pay for a pitcher of Quintana’s caliber). Not only did Jiménez continue to thrive in the White Sox’s system, he’s already found major league success.
Last season, Jiménez hit .267/.315/.513 (116 wRC+) with 31 home runs in 504 plate appearances. He’s not without his flaws; he didn’t rate well in left field and could perhaps stand to be a little more patient at the plate. Yet there’s no questioning Jiménez’s massive power upside, and he certainly looks the part of a potential middle-of-the-order force. Clearly, the White Sox expect him to be just that, having inked him to a $43MM guarantee that could keep him in Chicago through 2026. So continues the long line of early-career extensions the organization has amassed in recent years. Those deals (Quintana’s included) have paid huge dividends on the whole.
Cease, too, has a shot at emerging as a long-term asset. He raised his stock immediately after the trade with a strong season and a half in the minors. That didn’t translate in his first 14 MLB starts last season, but there are things to dream on. Cease posted a solid 24.9% strikeout rate as a rookie while averaging 96.5 MPH on his fastball. His is a higher-variance profile than Jiménez’s, but the Sox surely hope he can emerge as a useful arm in the near future, even if as a reliever.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s probably fair to say the Cubs wouldn’t make this deal again. It was a perfectly defensible move at the time, and Quintana has capably filled a key need on the roster. It’s not a disaster, as a few of the front office’s free agent moves have been. But Quintana’s slight regression on the North Side, combined with Jiménez’s continued blossoming offensively, looks to have tipped the scales in the White Sox’s favor.
Cubs Exercise Option On Jose Quintana, Decline Option On Derek Holland
6:50 pm: The club has announced both transactions. Quintana will remain under club control for the 2020 season, while Holland has been bought out.
6:25 pm: As expected, the Cubs have exercised their 2020 team option on starter Jose Quintana, as first reported by Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (link). The club declined its 2020 team option on hurler Derek Holland.
Quintana’s option for 2020 comes in at $10.5MM, while the club could have paid him a $1MM buyout if it preferred that he walk. The left-hander hasn’t been quite the same pitcher since changing Chicago sides midway through the 2017 season, but a $9.5MM proposition for a mid-to-back-rotation type is still a reasonably palatable option. Quintana’s 4.68 ERA in 2019 was his worst mark since breaking into the league back in 2012, but underlying metrics like FIP (3.80) and BABIP (.326) indicate that he may have been subject to more than his fair share of bad luck last year. Quintana carries a cumulative 4.23 ERA with the Cubs since being acquired from the White Sox in 2017 in exchange for a package headlined by Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease.
Holland carried a $7MM club option for 2020, but the club instead chose to buy him out for $500k. That likely represented an easy pass for Chicago management, as Holland was largely limited to relief in 2020 after a rocky start to the year for San Francisco (the lefty was designated in July and subsequently acquired by Chicago in a minor deal). While Holland has recorded sub-4.00 ERAs as a full-time starting pitcher in 2011, 2013, and 2018, he has pitched to an ERA exceeding 6.00 in two of his last three seasons. The sinkerballer posted a Hard Hit percentage of 42.1% last year according to Statcast, placing him in the bottom 8% of the sport in that category.
Trade Candidate: Jose Quintana
The Cubs, in the wake of a 2019 showing that can’t be classified as much other than a brutal disappointment, are now facing several fascinating offseason questions. Among them: Which person should they choose to succeed ousted championship manager Joe Maddon? Should they shop Kris Bryant or any other stars? Should they make a serious effort to re-sign soon-to-be free agent Nicholas Castellanos? There may not be an obvious answer to any of those questions, but there is in regards to the future of left-hander Jose Quintana. Should the Cubs exercise his $11.5MM option (in lieu of a $1MM buyout) for next season? Absolutely.
To be clear, 2019 was not a stellar season for Quintana, whom the Cubs acquired from the White Sox in July 2017 in what could go down as a costly trade for the North Siders. The Cubs gave up then-prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, two players who now look as if they’ll be cornerstones for the White Sox. It was understandable from the Cubs’ perspective at the time, as Quintana was then one of the game’s most underrated front-line workhorses – not to mention someone on a sweetheart contract.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, Quintana simply hasn’t produced like the under-the-radar standout from the White Sox since they got him. At that point, Quintana was coming off four straight seasons of 200-plus innings – an 814 2/3-frame span in which he notched a 3.35 ERA/3.34 FIP with 7.73 K/9 and 2.23 BB/9. The Cubs’ Quintana hasn’t amassed more than 188 2/3 innings in a season, and his run prevention has fallen off since his South Side salad days. Quintana owns a less impressive 4.23 ERA/3.95 FIP in 429 2/3 frames as a Cub.
To Quintana’s credit, he has struck out 8.55 hitters per nine against 2.83 walks since changing Chicago addresses. His 91-92 mph average fastball velocity and roughly 8 percent swinging-strike rate have also remained intact in recent years. So, unlike some other prominent pitchers whose bottom-line results have recently declined (Chris Archer?), Quintana’s far from broken. It’s pretty clear Quintana’s still an asset, though whether the Cubs see him as integral enough to keep in 2020 – his last year of team control – is up in the air.
Again, it should be a slam dunk to say yes to Quintana’s option. But will the Cubs shop the soon-to-be 31-year-old around after picking it up? On one hand, the answer should be no. The Cubs don’t have clear non-Quintana solutions in their rotation aside from Kyle Hendricks, Yu Darvish and Jon Lester, especially with Cole Hamels set for free agency, and they’re not teeming with young starters who are about to take the league by storm. With that in mind, keeping Quintana would be a perfectly defensible choice from the team’s perspective. On the other hand, there’s a case the Cubs are really in position to shake things up this winter, and parting with Quintana could prove to be part of their restructuring. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein was upset with Chicago’s performance off a playoff berth a year ago, so he may well be apoplectic behind the scenes now after a late collapse and no October ball this season.
One problem for Chicago, which is leery of the luxury tax, is that it hardly has an endless supply of spending room. The Cubs opened 2019 with a payroll a little over $203MM, per Cot’s. MLBTR’s Chicago aficionado, Tim Dierkes, forecasts something in the $205MM range (slightly below the tax) for next season. Including arbitration projections and excluding likely non-tender Addison Russell, the Cubs come in around $180MM. Finding a way to shave Quintana’s money via trade would free up quite a bit more spending space for the club while perhaps opening the door for a major upgrade (would it pursue Gerrit Cole?). And it shouldn’t be that challenging for the Cubs to find a taker for Quintana, who’s better than the extreme majority of pending free-agent starters.
Pound for pound, aside from Cole, opt-out candidate Stephen Strasburg, Zack Wheeler, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Madison Bumgarner, are there any free agents-to-be who are clearly preferable to Quintana? Hamels? Dallas Keuchel? Jake Odorizzi? Arguably, but they’ll all come at higher commitments than what Quintana’s owed next year. Quintana’s affordability could help persuade the Cubs to retain him, but if they shop him in an effort to make over their roster, there should be a solid amount of interest from around the league.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Players Added To The 40-Man Roster
Tonight marks the deadline for players to be added to their respective organizations’ 40-man rosters. Over the nine hours, there’ll be a flurry of moves, ranging from minor trades (like the one the Indians and Rays made yesterday), waiver claims and players being designated for assignment or outrighted. Each will be made to clear room for players who need protection from this year’s Rule 5 Draft. As a reminder, players who signed at 18 years of age or younger and have five professional seasons are eligible, as are players who signed at 19 or older and have four professional seasons under their belts.
Here’s a rundown of players who’ve been added to their respective 40-man rosters (which will be updated throughout the day)…
- There are three additions for the Twins: outfielder LaMonte Wade and infielders Nick Gordon and Luis Arraez.
- The Giants announced that they have added a trio of righties: Melvin Adon, Sam Coonrod, and Logan Webb.
- Lefty Justin Steele is now a member of the Cubs‘ 40-man, per an announcement.
- The Rangers announced that they are protecting veteran hurler Edinson Volquez, who’s returning from Tommy John surgery, along with outfielder Scott Heineman, righty Wei-Chieh Huang, and lefty Taylor Hearn.
- Righties Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker, infielder Cole Tucker, and outfielder Jason Martin are all joining the Pirates‘ 40-man, per Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects (via Twitter).
- The Blue Jays will add righty Patrick Murphy to their 40-man, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Toronto has announced his addition, along with those of fellow righties Trent Thornton, Yennsy Diaz, Hector Perez, and Jacob Waguespack.
- Three Indians players have been boosted up to the 40-man, the club announced: first baseman Bobby Bradley, southpaw Sam Hentges, and righty Jean Carlos Mejίa.
- Righty Joe Harvey is joining the Yankees‘ MLB roster, the club announced.
- The Phillies have added shortstop Arquimedes Gamboa along with righties Edgar Garcia and Adonis Medina to the 40-man, per a club announcement.
- Former first-round draft pick Dillon Tate, a right-handed pitcher, was selected to the Orioles‘ 40-man.
Cubs Exercise Jose Quintana’s Option, Claim Jerry Vasto From Royals
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.
Heyman’s Latest: Astros, Verlander, Samardzija, Rays, Mets, Dickey
In his weekly Inside Baseball column, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag takes a look at the tightly packed AL Wild Card race. He also provides some notes from both the American League and National League. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of relevance to the transactional landscape:
- While the Astros could still conceivably renew their pursuit of Tigers righty Justin Verlander, it may be that the talks are over barring a significant change of heart from one or both of the organizations. Heyman cites a source who said he felt negotiations were “put to bed last week.” In other news regarding Houston, Heyman says the club “never got serious” in their apparently limited pursuits of Jose Quintana, Sonny Gray or Yu Darvish in July, and one source indicated to Heyman that it never even made an offer for Quintana this summer. The Astros, of course, pursued Quintana extensively this offseason, so the front office was likely already well aware of Chicago’s lofty asking price for Quintana.
- It seems the Giants have yet to place righty Jeff Samardzija on waivers, with Heyman suggesting it’s seen as unlikely he’ll be claimed when he does go on the wire. But the belief is that the starter could be targeted if he does clear waivers. Samardzija has carried compelling strikeout (160) and walk (23) numbers through his 155 2/3 innings on the year, though he has also allowed 22 home runs and owns a 4.74 ERA. He has turned in four-straight quality outings, it’s worth noting.
- The Rays are interested in finding a right-handed hitter, according to Heyman, though it’s unclear just what the club might realistically look to do. Tampa Bay has not performed as had been hoped when the team reshaped its roster over the summer, which surely also alters the picture. Reserves such as Trevor Plouffe, Daniel Robertson, and Peter Bourjos have all struggled with the bat, though finding upgrades will be challenging at this stage. (As mostly goes without saying, the decision to part with Tim Beckham has not looked good thus far.)
- After striking a variety of deals already, the Mets are “still working hard” to deal away more players this August, Heyman writes. Veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson still seems like the most obvious possible trade piece, though perhaps infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, lefty Jerry Blevins, catcher Rene Rivera, or even recently-acquired reliever A.J. Ramos could be moved.
- The Braves are considering exercising their $8MM club option over knuckleballer R.A. Dickey for the 2018 season, per Heyman. That option comes with a $500K buyout, effectively making it a $7.5MM decision. The Braves are pleased with the 42-year-old’s durability, innings and leadership. Through 141 frames this season, Dickey has a 3.89 ERA with 6.1 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 49.5 percent ground-ball rate. Realistically, the club would be hard pressed to find better value on the open market and will need the innings next year.
- Some clubs believe that the Angels are the team that placed the claim on Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler, per Heyman, who notes that Anaheim is still in the market for a second base upgrade. However, the Halos have only “limited” interest in Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips, who has reportedly cleared revocable waivers and is having a solid season at the plate.
NL East Notes: Albies, Braves, Mets, Volquez, Phelps, Vizcaino, Motte
The Braves aren’t done looking for a controllable starter after missing on Jose Quintana, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (links to Twitter). Atlanta pushed hard for the southpaw, per the report, with the team dangling Ozzie Albies as a headliner — though Passan’s source makes clear that talks never reached an advanced stage. It’s interesting to hear that Albies was offered up, but that was surely a prerequisite to get in the door on Quintana. Whether the intriguing young middle infielder could also be on the block in trade concepts involving other pitchers isn’t clear, but it seems that the Braves are still looking to be aggressive in adding arms for 2018 and beyond.
Here’s more from the NL East:
- Mets GM Sandy Alderson acknowledged that his organization will remain in a selling position unless things go “exceedingly well” before the deadline, as Marc Carig of Newsday writes. As the team sits eight games under .500, reaching a realistic position of contention would likely require a prolonged winning streak combined with stumbles from one or more front-running teams. Alderson reiterated that the club will not be looking to do more than cash in some expiring veterans, saying that a trade involving a core veteran would be “exceedingly unlikely.” Alderson also addressed some of his broader roster-building philosophies, including the relative value of defense in player evaluation, which you can read about at the above link.
- It seems that righty Edinson Volquez may not be so quick to return to the Marlins rotation as had been hoped. As Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports on Twitter, MRI results on the veteran’s balky left knee showed patellar tendinitis. Skipper Don Mattingly suggested that it doesn’t look to be a significant long-term problem, but Volquez also won’t return from the DL on Sunday. There hasn’t been much suggestion that he’s likely to factor as a trade piece, though the injury further clouds that possibility. Given his hefty salary for 2018 ($13MM), Volquez could also certainly be moved in August.
- One Marlins player who very clearly is in demand is right-handed reliever David Phelps, as Spencer also reports. He’s “drawing far more interest” than is closer A.J. Ramos, per the report, with about ten teams inquiring on the former and only two or three asking about the latter. It sounds as if both have a good chance of changing hands, ultimately, but it’s not all that surprising to hear that the steady Phelps is in greater demand. Indeed, he could even be seen as a possible rotation candidate for 2018 by some organizations that would be interested in adding him to their pen down the stretch.
- Braves righty Arodys Vizcaino could well factor in trade talks as well. He’s throwing off a mound today and seemingly won’t be far off from a return, per David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). It had been a bit unclear just when he’d return, but it seems as if the talented — if somewhat enigmatic — reliever ought to have plenty of time to display his form for possible suitors. Veteran right-hander Jason Motte, though, may be headed in the other direction. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that Motte is heading to the DL with a back strain. He may have held some interest to contenders, though his peripherals lagged his results in Atlanta (and the ERA had begun to creep northward anyway).
Reactions To And Effects Of The Jose Quintana Trade
After a nearly silent All-Star break on the rumor front, the Cubs and White Sox stunned the baseball world by announcing a blockbuster deal that sent left-hander Jose Quintana from Chicago’s American League club to its National League team in exchange for minor leaguers Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Matt Rose and Bryant Flete. Over the past 24 hours, both teams have addressed the media, pundits from around the media have weighed in on the swap, and others have reported details on alternative talks that each team had leading up to the blockbuster move. Here’s a before-and-after, if you will, of how what might be the summer’s biggest trade transpired…
- The Yankees, Brewers and Astros were all involved in varying levels of trade talks regarding Quintana before the Cubs ultimately acquired him, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Braves, too, were in on Quintana “until the end,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Meanwhile, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweets that the Rockies were “never really in” on Quintana despite a potential need for some rotation upgrades with some of their younger arms sputtering lately.
- The Cubs tried to engage the Tigers in trade talks on Michael Fulmer before acquiring Quintana, reports Nightengale in a full column. However, Detroit gave no indication that it was willing to listen unless the Cubs were willing to include both Javier Baez and Ian Happ in trade talks. They also inquired on Justin Verlander, per Morosi (also via Twitter), though he notes that, similarly, talks between the two sides “never gained momentum.”
- While many were stunned to see the Sox and Cubs line up on a trade — their first since 2006 — White Sox GM Rick Hahn scoffed at the notion that their shared city would serve as an impediment to trade talks, writes Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. “This notion that we wouldn’t do business with them because they’re in town — or somehow we would actually take an inferior baseball deal for non-baseball reasons because of emotion or a rivalry or something totally unrelated to putting the best possible team on the field for the next several years — is laughable,” said Hahn. The South Side GM went on to laud Jimenez’s upside, calling him a potential middle-of-the-order bat with power potential and the ability to hit to all fields. Hahn adds that yesterday’s package was “far and away the best offer, the best possibility, that we’ve discussed with any club since we’ve started this process roughly a year or ago or so.”
- The Cubs believed that they were out of the running to acquire Quintana after talking to Hahn in June, president of baseball operations told reporters (via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun-Times). Hahn, though, re-engaged with Epstein on Sunday night, and the two talked over the next few days, including a conversation that included Hahn ducking behind an exhibit at All-Star FanFest in Miami to avoid being seen (per ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers, on Twitter). Ultimately, it became clear that the Cubs would have to part with two of their very best prospects to get the deal done. “This deal had zero-percent chance of happening without both Eloy and Cease in it,” said Epstein. The Cubs president went on to say that they’ve been trying to acquire a pitcher like Quintana for “a long time” and added that his analytics and scouting teams “[dug] deep” to determine whether there were any changes that led to Quintana’s slow start t the season. “Our assessment on both fronts was that he is the same guy, and our staff felt that way with conviction,” Epstein said.
- Also via Wittenmyer’s column, Epstein said that the team isn’t necessarily done yet, though their play in the next two weeks will dictate what other moves are or aren’t made. “We need to play well coming out of the gates here, and we’ll assess what we’re trying to do in large part based on how we play and where we are in the standings, and how realistic we think a World Series run is this year,” Epstein said. “Everything is still on the table for this year.”
- ESPN’s Keith Law opines (Insider subscription required and recommended) that both clubs did well in the trade. The Cubs picked up a durable arm that has a near-ace-level track record over the past three years whose raw stuff “didn’t really waver” even through his struggles earlier this season. Quintana can help offset the loss of right-hander Jake Arrieta after the season, joining Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks in the rotation for the next several years. His contract is also affordable enough that the team can comfortably pursue rotation help on the free-agent market this winter. Law projects Jimenez as a middle-of-the-order bat and suggests that he alone could’ve been an acceptable return, though the inclusion of Cease sweetens the deal. Cease has questions about his command as well as his durability and may end up in the ‘pen, though his velocity and pair of potentially above-average secondary offerings make him a nice upside play. Law notes that he’s been leapfrogged by a pair of pitching prospects on the Cubs’ organizational rankings, which might’ve made him easier to deal.
- Both Nightengale and Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network opine that it’s ridiculous that this is just the second trade these two teams have made this decade and offer praise for Hahn and Epstein for their pragmatic approach to dealing with one another. Teams are making more rational and data-driven decisions than ever before, Rosenthal notes, ultimately surmising that that trend should also include a willingness to deal within the same city and within the same division.
- Yahoo’s Jeff Passan writes that Quintana’s contract was every bit as important to the Cubs as Quintana himself. With significant arbitration raises looming for players like Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Hendricks, Javier Baez, Carl Edwards Jr. and others looming in the next two years, the team’s enviable young core is going to rapidly become considerably more expensive. Shedding money from aging veterans like Arrieta, John Lackey and Ben Zobrist will obviously free up some cash, but Quintana’s contract meets an important nexus of future payroll flexibility, remaining under the luxury tax and improving the near- and long-term roster.