Chicago Cubs: Expectations for Jose Quintana in 2018

What will Quintana bring to the Cubs in 2018?

When the Cubs traded for Quintana, they did not expect him to become the ace of the staff. Instead, the idea was that Quintana would provide the Cubs with a solid middle of the rotation starter that would be around for at least two years following 2017.

Going into the 2018 season, Quintana projects to be the Cubs number three starter (barring a free agent signing or trade this winter). For that reason, it would be foolish to expect a Cy Young worthy season from Quintana. Would that be nice, yes, but a solid season from Quintana seems to be more likely.

According to Baseball-Reference, Quintana will win ten games in 2018. That would mark only the third time in Quintana’s career that he would reach that milestone. In addition to ten wins, the projection suggests that Quintana will record a 3.86 ERA in 175 innings pitched. While the ERA seems to be in-line with Quintana’s 3.53 career ERA, 175 innings pitched seems to be a little low.

Quintana has made 32 starts in each of the past four seasons. That means if he only logs 175 innings in 2018 and makes the same amount of starts, Quintana would only average about 5.5 innings per start.

Baseball-Reference also suggests that Quintana will record 8.8 strikeouts per game and 2.7 walks. Those marks would be higher than his career averages, but lower than the numbers he posted in 2017.