Chicago Cubs: Revisiting the Jose Quintana deal with some perspective

As is often the case with contenders, the Chicago Cubs shored up for a postseason run with a big acquisition last summer. Was it all worth it?

Good starting pitchers can be difficult to come by. In 2016, the Chicago Cubs starting rotation led all of Major League Baseball with a 3.15 ERA. Last season, after a middling start, the team felt it necessary to bring in Jose Quintana from the Chicago White Sox.

In exchange, the Cubs shipped off top prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, as well as Matt Rose and Bryant Flete.

The Cubs have been known to make flashy trades in the past. Before the 2016 trade deadline, they sent their top prospect at the time, Gleyber Torres, to the New York Yankees in exchange for fireballer Aroldis Chapman. Obviously, we all know the rest of the story.

At the helm, Theo Epstein is not afraid to make the heavy-handed decisions – ones that could ultimately bring a huge return. In the case of the Torres-Chapman deal, the latter wound up being a key cog in the Cubs’ historic World Series championship season.

Which circles us back to Jose Quintana as we dive into this blockbuster trade almost a year in.