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Chicago Cubs: The interesting tenure of Jose Quintana
One can look at the Chicago Cubs tenure of Jose Quintana and say it hasn’t been great. But a deeper drive on the numbers may change your mind.
Despite falling just one out shy from a quality start, Jose Quintana threw another solid game Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs lefty currently has 14 quality starts (at least six innings with three or less earned runs) on the season. He sports a 3.90 ERA, 3.70 FIP, 1.28 WHIP, 8.09 K/9, 2.42 and BB/9 and 3.3 fWAR in 152 1/3 innings in 2019.
Those numbers are pretty spot-on when it comes to looking at his body of work on the North Side. As a Chicago Cub he has a 3.92 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 1.26 WHIP, 8.6 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 411 innings pitched.
Everyone remembers what was given up to get Quintana from the White Sox back in the summer of 2017. Seemingly every pitch he makes is judged on whether or not it was worth giving up Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease for.
The promise of those two and the overall numbers of Quintana have often made Cubs fans upset about the trade. Yet, breaking down his body of work can certainly remind people of his value to the team.
Chicago Cubs: Breaking down Quintana’s outings
Friday afternoon marked the 72nd start for Quintana in a Cubs uniform. Thirty-six of those starts, exactly half, have been quality starts. In fact he and Jon Lester have exactly the same numbers of quality starts (27) going back to the beginning of 2018. Both trail Kyle Hendricks by four in that span. Obviously the types of quality starts vary (number of shutouts, one, two or three-run games and innings pitched) but it still speaks volumes.
What had caused the numbers of his overall body of work to bloat have been the occasional awful outings. Since joining the Cubs, eight of Quintana’s starts have resulted in giving up six or more earned runs. He sports a 14.37 ERA in those games. Two of those eight starts have come this year and his season ERA would be 3.10 had those two outings been deleted off the game log page.
This was a somewhat similar case last season when he had a 4.03 ERA and 4.43 FIP in 32 starts, 13 of them being quality starts. While he has overall been much better this year, the body of work last year saw more decent/good than bad. There was just enough bad to make 2018 an average season for him.
Chicago Cubs: Comparing his Cubs tenure to his White Sox tenure
Over his 172 appearances (169 starts) in a White Sox uniform, he had a 3.51 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 1.25 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 1,055 1/3 innings. One thing is obvious right off the bat, Quintana was more consistent on the South Side. Quintana averaged roughly 22 quality starts per season from 2013-2016 while sporting a 3.35 ERA over that span. His career-high in quality starts was 25 in 2015.
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From his rookie year in 2012 through 2016 he had nine total outings in which he gave up six or more earned runs. That is just one less than the number he has had as a Cub and that was over five seasons. Yes, he struggled to begin 2017 before he was traded, but those seasons were much more telling of what he had done with the White Sox. Hence why Theo Epstein paid the big price.
Since the trade, the HR/9 has gone up as has his BB/9. We saw some much shakier command last season, reflected by his career-high 3.5 BB/9. However, the strikeout rates are also up. One cannot help but wonder if the way the game has shifted has simply hurt a guy that uses location and movement and not speed to get outs. Balls are flying out of the park at historic rates as are whiffs.
He has been able to adjust his game nicely this year by adding his change-up, reworking approach, etc. but this era of baseball is certainly something that may have hurt him prior to this season.
Chicago Cubs: How to put it all together
I guess the best way to evaluate Jose Quintana’s is to just look at the game logs. Numbers overall say slightly better than average, but the number of good/great outings cannot go unnoticed. It’s a few ugly-looking warts on a nice body of work. Go back to his 2017 tenure with the Cubs, 3.74 ERA, 3.25 FIP, 1.1 WHIP and 10.5 K/9, that alone was huge for the team.
Will Quintana ever find the level of consistency he had on the White Sox? Likely not, especially in this era of slugging, but his value has been a positive for the Cubs. He will probably never not be compared to Jimenez and Cease, even after he is long gone, but what matters is what he brings to the Cubs.
Next. Hello, Schwarbellanos.. dark
So far Quintana has been one of the most efficient pitchers this second half. He is having his best run as a Cub since he first joined and the team will need him to keep it going if they want to sneak back into the postseason for a record fifth-straight season.