Pittsburgh Pirates: Proposing a José Quintana Trade to the Blue Jays

Now that Luis Castillo and Frankie Montas have been traded, Pittsburgh Pirates lefty José Quintana is likely the next starting pitcher to be dealt to a contending team. The Toronto Blue Jays need more pitching and Quintana would be a perfect fit for them. 

José Quintana to the Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays are need of some quality starting pitching and José Quintana would give them that. Quintana has found his former self this year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 20 games, he has a 3.50 ERA in 103 innings pitched with 89 strike outs.

He is only walking batters at an impressive 7.2% rate and induces ground balls 45% of the time. Quintana has also lowered the amount of home runs this season compared to last year which is one reason why he has drastically improved.

With Hyun Jin Ryu on the 60-day IL and Yusei Kikuchi struggling, the Blue Jays could use a strong reliable lefty like Quintana. The question is, what would the trade look like? I think we could see an overpay now that starting pitching is limited. Toronto may be desperate and could give up a nice package to obtain Quintana.

This would be a fair trade for both teams. The Blue Jays would get a reliable starter in Jose Quintana  and the Pittsburgh Pirates would get a solid right handed pitching prospect in Sem Robberse. Quintana would immediately help Toronto contend for a pennant while Robberse would help continue grow Pittsburgh farm system.

Robberse is currently ranked as the Blue Jays 7th best prospect according to MLB Pipeline. He is just 20 years old and is pitching in High-A for the Vancouver Canadians. He has started in 15 games this season and has a 3.29 ERA in 76.2 innings pitched. He has only allowed 5 home runs on the season and has struck out 66 batters.

It is only a matter of time before Quintana gets traded, but this would be a reasonable trade for both franchises. There is less than 24 hours to go until the trade deadline passes and the Pirates should be very active.