NEWS: Brewers Agree to One-Year Deal With Starting Pitcher Jose Quintana

[Matthew Trueblood]

The Brewers' starting rotation is on the cusp of a late infusion of depth. They're bringing in a veteran southpaw to shore up a unit with lots of uncertainty outside the top three spots.

Image courtesy of © Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Brewers already had four hurlers—Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale, Tobias Myers, and Nestor Cortes—from whom they hoped to get a relatively high volume of innings this season. Now, they've added a fifth.

Jose Quintana is coming off a very strong season with the Mets, in which he was their Opening Day starter against the club for whom he'll now toil in 2025. His 170 innings and 3.75 ERA last year would normally put him in a position to command a hefty multi-year deal, but at this stage of his career, Quintana doesn't miss many bats. That's fine with the Brewers, though. They'll slot him into the back half of their sturdy starting group, in front of a defense they still trust immensely, and hope that his addition gives them more stability.

With Brandon Woodruff and DL Hall set to begin the season on the injured list, Aaron Ashby was the leading candidate for the fifth spot in the rotation. Now, though, Quintana figures to land that gig, leaving open a fascinating question: Will the Brewers send Ashby back to Triple-A Nashville yet again, or move him into the bullpen? This move figures to have major ripple effects for the entire pitching staff heading into the coming season. We'll cover them closely in stories throughout the week.

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[Trax]

Like it.

Might want to start Ashby at AAA but he likely won't be long away from the big club.  We seem to have a little depth to work with....

[CheezWizHed]

But can he play 3B?

[biedergb]

12 minutes ago, Trax said:

Like it.

Might want to start Ashby at AAA but he likely won't be long away from the big club.  We seem to have a little depth to work with....

I think the other part is not burning the options/40 man spots on the AAA guys (like last year with CF Rodriguez who used a 40 man spot before he was really ready). If Quintana plays well great, if he is a pick up like Julio Teheran or more like Keuchel last year, then use the innings and you can always trade or DFA the pitcher later.

AAA (or AA) will likely have some good arms, but may be a few months or a year away from being MLB ready (Miz, Henderson, Hunt, Wichrowski, Rodriguez)

[Joseph Zarr]

Ostensibly, this is a very very solid back-of-the-rotation add at this late point in the off-season. Major boon to the overall quality depth of the staff. Plus, now he can't inexplicably shut down the Brewers bats once again. I think Ashby stays on board as a stretch swing man/6th Starter.Either way, the Crew suddenly has a wealthy of lefties. Wild times.

[Sugarrayray]

I think people are missing that Ashby is dominant as a reliever. He will now be placed in the bullpen to continue his great work from the end of last year, when Murphy was at times even using him in a fireman type role. 
 

This signing improves the rotation AND bullpen.

[Trax]

31 minutes ago, biedergb said:

I think the other part is not burning the options/40 man spots on the AAA guys (like last year with CF Rodriguez who used a 40 man spot before he was really ready). If Quintana plays well great, if he is a pick up like Julio Teheran or more like Keuchel last year, then use the innings and you can always trade or DFA the pitcher later.

AAA (or AA) will likely have some good arms, but may be a few months or a year away from being MLB ready (Miz, Henderson, Hunt, Wichrowski, Rodriguez)

Can't believe I saw Hunt pitch in Appleton last year and he is a legit mention in this comparison.  We do have a nice mix, though of more recent times Rodriguez is starting to give me some reason to doubt his ultimate potential. 

[sveumrules]

5 minutes ago, Trax said:

Can't believe I saw Hunt pitch in Appleton last year and he is a legit mention in this comparison.  We do have a nice mix, though of more recent times Rodriguez is starting to give me some reason to doubt his ultimate potential. 

Agree that Carlos Rodriguez hasn't done much lately to inspire a ton of confidence, but one thing to keep in mind is that he is still pretty young.

Last year only him and Mick Abel threw 100 IP or more in AAA during their age 22 season or younger, and Carlos's ERA was almost full two runs lower even though Abel has gotten multiple Top 100 placements over the years.

[Rick Daltons Flamethrower]

We are better today than we were yesterday. 

[Matt Breen]

Did not see that one coming. Nice signing at that price. I'm surprised no one was willing to give Quintana more $$$. 

[Zad Fnark]

I figure the pitching lab should make him better.

[gregmag]

The rotation is massively more reliable than it was a year ago. That takes pressure off the pen, which also looks a lot more reliable than it did a year ago. Last year we needed magic tricks like Myers and Hudson to save the staff.  Any magic tricks we come up with this season — Hunt? Henderson? Yoho? — are relative gravy.  True, we don’t have two great months of Devin Williams on call; but we may have three decent months of Brandon Woodruff. 
 

This rotation is far from sexy, but it’s also far from the problem it was last March.