New York Yankees Trade Rumors: Team Still Negotiating With Chicago White Sox On Jose Quintana Deal
New York Yankees trade rumors still link the team to Jose Quintana and the Chicago White Sox. Though the team isn’t making from page news with these negotiations, it has been confirmed that the Yankees are still involved in the daily talks the White Sox have been having. A report by MLB analyst Ken Rosenthal states that the Yankees are a longshot to acquire Quintana, most likely because the team is unwilling to part with a package of elite level prospects to get a deal done.
Adding a pitcher like Jose Quintana could immediately improve the New York Yankees, but the team may be hesitant to re-invest in a player who was already in the system. Quintana got released after going 10-2 with a 2.91 ERA for Class A Tampa in 2011. Since then, Quintana has found a lot of success with the White Sox, including making the All-Star team. Now he is considered one of the better pitchers in the American League, which has created a lot of trade interest during the MLB off-season.
In 951 career innings, Quintana has a 3.41 ERA and 1.242 WHIP. He also strikes out 7.4 batters per nine innings. Last season, he posted an impressive WHIP of just 1.163 over 208 innings of work. Quintana will make $7 million during the 2017 MLB season and then $8.85 million in 2018. Quintana also has a $10.5 million club option for 2019 and an $11.5 million club option for 2020. That works out to about $37.85 million over the next four years, translating to team control and a primary reason so many New York Yankees trade rumors have surfaced.
The odds aren’t good that the Yankees will acquire Quintana from the White Sox, but general manager Brian Cashman is making every effort to figure out the possibilities. One of the issues is that there are so many other teams that might be willing to give up a better package of prospects to acquire another starting pitcher. If the return packages that the White Sox received from the Washington Nationals for Adam Eaton and the Boston Red Sox for Chris Sale are any indication of what it would take to get Quintana, then Cashman may have already been priced out of the market.
If there is a debate about which teams have the best shot at landing Jose Quintana, then the correct answer might be either the Pittsburgh Pirates or Houston Astros. The Pirates and Astros each have a lot of prospects that have been mentioned in prior trade rumors, with the possibility that they would be willing to give up at least two top-tier guys to land Quintana. That might just be what it takes, especially if the teams are openly competing for the same deal. Houston may have also tipped its hand in negotiations with the Tampa Bay Rays for Chris Archer.
Brian Cashman has stated that he doesn’t want to deal Jorge Mateo or Domingo Acevedo, even though those two names keep coming up in trade rumors with other teams. The team has been doing a great job at acquiring and keeping prospects in recent years, with players like Clint Frazier, Gleyber Torres, and Aaron Judge among them. Packaging them for a veteran starting pitcher might help the team in the short-term, but Cashman appears to be completely focused on long-term sustainability now.
It is a bit of a mystery why Cashman is still in contact with the Chicago White Sox, even though he knows that the team wants an extensive package of players for Jose Quintana. The answer could be that he is hoping the other bidders for Quintana find different options for starting pitchers and that the price to acquire Quintana goes down. That seems to be the only scenario where these New York Yankees trade rumors would end with Quintana coming to town.
[Featured Image by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images]
