Chicago Cubs: The interesting tenure of Jose Quintana

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.