Cubs News: Jose Quintana rejoins Joe Maddon on a one-year deal

It’s been a rough few days. Literally day after day, we’re watching members of last year’s team join new clubs – and on Tuesday, we added another one to the rapidly-growing pile.

Former Cubs lefty Jose Quintana is off to Anaheim to pitch once again for Joe Maddon and the Los Angeles Angels. According to Joel Sherman, the deal is reportedly for one year and will pay him $8 million.

He joins Tyler Chatwood (Blue Jays) and Jon Lester (Nationals) as pitchers who have left the Cubs for other teams this season. That doesn’t even include Yu Darvish, who was traded to the Padres.

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Quintana came to the Cubs from the White Sox in 2017 during the All-Star break, for Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, plus two more prospects. He started 78 games for the team in four years, posting a 4.24 ERA over 439 2/3 innings. He struck out 420 and walked 138 hitters. On the South Side, prior to his move to the other side of the Windy City, he posted a 3.51 ERA in 169 starts.

One pillar of Quintana’s game is that he eats innings. It sounds like a broken record but the Cubs really need innings in 2021. They don’t appear to be interested in winning big, and somebody needs to pitch.

Quintana will be 32 in a few days, and there is a lot of mileage on his arm. The best days of his career may be behind him. He missed most of the 2020 season, albeit shortened, due to injury. He made just one start and pitched in four games. Will he come back from injury fine, or will the bug keep biting him? A one-year deal is the best for him.

Jose Quintana is yet another player that’s “too expensive” for the Cubs.

This is one guy fans shouldn’t be too up in arms about. Quintana’s ERA was higher each year, and he got hit around more.

The big one fans should be upset about is Jon Lester. Lester signed a one-year deal with the Nationals on Monday night. This comes after Lester approached the Cubs about returning back in December, and reports from beat writers such as Gordon Wittenmyer stating Lester had wanted to retire a Cub and would have taken less money, but Jed Hoyer was reportedly never authorized to make an offer.

Lester leaving the Cubs from a baseball standpoint makes sense, he’s on the downturn of his career, but it still hurts. As for Chatwood, well, he never really captured the hearts of fans, to say the least.

The way the Ricketts’ family is running the Cubs is embarrassing. If the team can’t even afford to spend $2 million on a franchise icon then what are they even doing anymore? One of the five richest franchises in baseball is acting like the Royals and Pirates. Actually, Kansas City has signed Carlos Santana to a two-year contract as well as Mike Minor. They may not be good, but at least they are trying.

The Ricketts family have no interest in trying to field a competitive team for the next number of years, and they deserve to be drilled. There’s no reason for this. I don’t think fans are upset at trades, it was always bound to happen, it’s what it represents.

There are many reasons to be upset with the Cubs right now, but losing Jose Quintana is not one, but the Lester situation will stick with the fanbase for awhile.