Cubs given yet another reminder of botched trade with division rival's latest signing

Baseball fans love to re-hash old trades and signings - but few have been more talked about than the Chicago Cubs' 2017 trade to acquire left-hander Jose Quintana in exchange for top prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease.

Now, Quintana will play a role in determining the outcome of the 2025 Cubs after signing a one-year deal in the $4-5 million range with the reigning NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers on Monday.

For better or worse, Cubs fans will remember Quintana, who pitched for the team from 2017-2020 after coming over at the deadline from the crosstown rival Chicago White Sox in the summer of '17.

Given the high prospect cost, Cubs fans, from the start, expected Quintana to pitch like an ace. Just one year prior, the southpaw was an All-Star and finished 10th in AL Cy Young voting en route to a career-high 5.3 bWAR. That marked his second 5.0+ bWAR season in four years on the South Side, so expectations were high following the move.

That 2017 Cubs rotation needed a shot in the arm. Chicago entered the All-Star break at 43-45, a record that felt like a rapid and precipitous fall from the peaks of a World Series championship the previous fall. A 44-37 record in the second half led Joe Maddon's club to 92 regular season wins, a second consecutive division crown and a third straight NLCS appearance.

Quintana played a key role for the team down the stretch, working to a 3.25 FIP in 14 starts following the trade and was sharp in the postseason until the Dodgers lit him up for six earned in two innings in the series-deciding Game 5 at Wrigley Field.

That start sat with more fans than it should have in the months that followed - and Quintana did himself no favors, taking a big step in the wrong direction in 2018, posting a personal-worst 4.43 FIP in 32 starts. The Cubs imploded in September, eventually losing the division to the Milwaukee Brewers before getting knocked out of the postseason in the wild card game at home against Colorado.

He bounced back in 2019, eclipsing 170 innings for the second straight year, but still falling well short of his early peak years with the White Sox. After one start and a trio of relief appearances in the shortened 2020 campaign, he hit free agency - and it's safe to say few Cubs fans were too shaken up over his departure.

Apart from his falling short of expectations, seeing Jimenez emerge as a potential star (fourth-place Rookie of the Year finish in 2019, Silver Slugger recipient in 2020) set off fans and as the shine quickly wore off Jimenez, it was Cease that has ultimately emerged as an elite talent, posting a pair of top-5 Cy Young finishes over the last three years.

Quintana joins a Brewers team that lost All-Star closer Devin Williams to trade and shortstop Willy Adames to free agency and feels like they're taking a step back. However, we're all too well aware that Milwaukee has exceeded projections on what feels like a yearly basis for some time now, so Quintana may very well get a chance to play spoiler to the Cubs' hopes of punching a postseason ticket for the first time in a full-length season since 2018.