Pittsburgh Pirates: Four Prospects to Target for José Quintana

If the Pittsburgh Pirates trade José Quintana, they should ask these teams about these four prospects in a trade involving the lefty starter.

It’s unfortunate that the Pittsburgh Pirates will likely trade José Quintana. He’s been great, but coming to terms with it, it will be worth more, in the long run, to trade him than to keep him right now. The Pirates can always go after him again in the off-season if they choose to do so. Quintana is having his best season since 2016 and is arguably the second most valuable pitcher on the trade market.

Quintana has a 3.33 ERA, 3.37 FIP, and 1.28 WHIP in 81 innings of work. His 21.6% strikeout rate might not jump off the page, but he has a quality 7.3% walk rate and 0.78 HR/9. He’s also been great at limiting hard contact, being in the 88th percentile of opponent exit velocity. The underlying numbers also represent a solid pitcher, having a 3.96 SIERA and 3.72 xFIP. Overall, he’s putting up almost identical numbers as his 2016 campaign, the one and only all-star season on his resume.

Although Quintana has just the rest of this year left on his contract, he is arguably the second most valuable pitcher on the trade market. Tyler Mahle and Frankie Montas landed on the injured list. Quintana and Reds’ right-hander Luis Castillo are the only players with a likely chance of being traded and have both an ERA and FIP below 3.50. Castillo has a leg-up on Quintana, though, because he comes with another year of control, but Quintana has pitched nearly as good as Castillo this season.

Quintana should command a decent return with the Pittsburgh Pirates having a near corner on the market to themselves. There are plenty of teams in need of pitching, and some have already shown some interest in Quintana. Today, I want to take a peek at four prospects the Pirates should ask about in the event of a Quintana trade. Now don’t consider all four of these guys to be headliners in a deal for Quintana. Also, keep in mind that this is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree, but personally, I just think the Pirates should put a hefty asking price on Quintana.