Reviewing The Jose Quintana Trade.
Back in 2017, the windy city clubs made a trade. Almost 5 years later, who really won the trade? It’s not close.
On Friday night, my brother and I were watching the night games trying to get a look at all of the teams. We were mainly watching the White Sox and Rays. Eloy Jimenez was up to bat, and my brother asked me if I knew how the White Sox acquired Jimenez. I had no idea until he proceeded to tell me the full trade. The trade blew my mind! I thought it would be fun to revisit the trade that I learned about Friday night and see who was the actual winner of the deal. Oftentimes, baseball writers will grade trades when they initially happen and when prospects are involved, it’s difficult to really get a feel for who won and who lost. The trade that involved Jimenez happened almost 5 years ago so there is enough data available to make a final call.
On July 13, 2017, the Chicago Cubs made a big splash in the trade market when they acquired Jose Quintana from the Chicago White Sox. The Cubs were coming off of a World Series title in 2016 and were trying to build a dynasty and become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the 99’ and 2000 Yankees. In the deal, the Chicago Cubs sent 4 prospects to the White Sox in a rare 4-1 player deal. The prospects that went to the White Sox were Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez, Bryant Flete, and Matt Rose.
Cubs get Jose Quintana.
During his time with the Chicago White Sox, Quintana was one of the more consistent pitchers in all of baseball. After his rookie season, Quintana reeled off 4 straight 32+ start seasons and 4 straight 200+ inning seasons. Pitchers who are durable are super valuable and he looked like he was getting better each season.
Quintana signed a team friendly extension with the White Sox for 5 / 26.5M. The Cubs had an opportunity to acquire a 28 year-old that was a #2 caliber pitcher with 3 years of control to bolster their already strong rotation. It seemed like a no-brainer. Quintana’s stats with the White Sox were solid and the idea of moving to the National League with the pitcher hitting made it even more enticing.
Career with White Sox
GS: 169
IP : 1,055
ERA: 3.51
K/BB: 3.13
bWAR: 21.2
The only risk the Cubs were taking was Quintana was in the middle of his worst season of his career. In his 18 starts with the White Sox during the 2017 season, Quintana had a 4.49 ERA. The Cubs were banking on him returning to his All-Star form.
Quintana had a strong finish to the 2017 season with the Cubs going 7-3 with 3.74 ERA. The 2017 postseason was up and down for Quintana as he had two scoreless outings in the NLDS in 6.1 innings but got bombed in his 2 starts in the NLCS giving up a combined 8 runs.
For the rest of his career with the Cubs, Quintana never got back to his 2012-2016 form. He was durable, making 31+ starts in 2018 and 2019 but never had an ERA under 4.00 with the Cubs again. His career numbers with the Cubs were the following:
Quintana with the Cubs:
GS: 78
IP: 439
ERA: 4.24
K/BB: 3.04
bWAR: 3.6
Postseason: 4 G, 3 GS, 5.40 ERA
When the Cubs acquired Quintana, there is no way they imagined he would average a 0.9 bWAR over the course of his 4 seasons with the Cubs.
White Sox get Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Bryant Flete, and Matt Rose:
Eloy Jimenez: 240 G, .268 / .315 / .501, 3.4 bWAR
When the White Sox acquired Jimenez, he was the 14th ranked prospect in baseball according to MLB.com. Jimenez was also the top prospect in the Cubs organization. The 25 year-old debuted back in 2019 and had a massive rookie season hitting 31 home runs. He showed the White Sox organization what he could develop into as he finished 4th in the ROY voting. Jimenez missed a big bulk of the 21’ season (107 games) and is off to a slow start this season. (.222 / .267 / .333). The White Sox outfielder is still only 25 and has time to develop into the middle of the order bat that many think he can become.
Dylan Cease: 60 GS, 4.30 ERA, 3.4 bWAR
When Cease came over to the White Sox in the trade, he was the 77th ranked prospect in baseball according to MLB.com and the 4th ranked prospect in the Cubs organization. Cease debuted in 2019 and quickly the league realized that the right hander had electric stuff. The problem with Cease when he broke into the league was his control. In 14 starts in 19’, he had a 4.32 BB/9 and in the truncated 2020 season, Cease had a 5.25 BB/9. Cease took a big step forward last season as he lowered his BB/9 to 3.69 and he had the second highest K rate among qualified starters last season at 12.28. Coming into this season, some writers predicted Cease as a sleeper for the A.L. CY. Cease is off to a great start through 2 starts: 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA and a 13.50 K/9 but he does have a 4.22 BB/9. Cease has the ceiling of a front-of-the-rotation starter.
Bryant Flete:
When Flete was acquired in the trade, he was not ranked inside the Cubs top 30 prospects according to MLB.com. The highest level Flete reached was AAA when he played 8 games in the White Sox organization. Flete last played Independent Ball in the Frontier League in 2021.
Matt Rose:
When Rose was acquired in the trade, he was not ranked inside the Cubs top 30 prospects according to MLB.com. The highest level Rose reached was AA when he played 118 games. He last played Independent Ball in the Frontier league in 2019.
Final Verdict: The White Sox won this deal and it could become even more lopsided.
The Chicago White Sox were the winners of this deal. The Cubs were hoping they were getting a #2 caliber starter when they acquired Jose Quintana and he never reached his early White Sox days form. I think Cubs fans would have been shocked if you told them that Quintana had a career 3.6 bWAR with the Cubs and never won a postseason game. For the White Sox, they were able to acquire an every day power hitting outfielder who still has a high ceiling. They also were able to acquire a starting pitcher with electric stuff that seems to be figuring it out. This trade could turn out to be a complete steal depending on the careers that Cease and Jimenez have over the next 5-10 years.