José Quintana Joins Angels, Becoming Third Former Cubs Pitcher in Two Days to Sign Elsewhere

José Quintana became the third former Cubs pitcher to sign with a new team in the last two days, agreeing Tuesday to a one-year deal with the Angels. The $8 million pact is equal to the guaranteed money being paid to Jon Lester and Tyler Chatwood combined, not that there’s any real significance to that. Unless you consider that it’s three more guaranteed deals for $16 million more than the Cubs have signed so far.

One year, $8 million… https://t.co/ZAG7PWgqL8

— Tim Brown (@ByTimBrown) January 20, 2021

Joe Maddon is now just one player behind Dave Martinez when it comes to poaching players from their former team and both have been connected to Willson Contreras. And I’m only partly joking about that because I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both managers are excited to load up on players the Cubs couldn’t or didn’t want to keep.

This may serve as something of a wake-up call for those who’ve brushed aside the Cubs’ lack of interest in re-signing their old starters, particularly if the justification is that there are better options available for less money. Quintana is a middle-of-the-rotation starter at best and he just scored $8 million, so the idea that half or even a quarter of that could lure a legit pitcher to a team not meaningfully trying to compete is laughable.

I really hope I’m wrong and that Jed Hoyer has got an ace up his sleeve in more ways than one, but the pitching market has been more robust than expected this winter. On the bright side, that means getting a look at a lot of the young starters the Cubs have waiting in the wings.