Been there before
Yanks’ rotation help could come full circle
IF YOU were a betting man and had to wager who would be the two best starting pitchers traded between now and July 31, who would you pick?
Gerrit Cole and Jose Quintana just might be the favorites.
The Giants (Johnny Cueto, Matt Moore, Jeff Samardzija) are playing better, and it is just not in their organizational DNA to sell. The Rays (Chris Archer, Alex Cobb) have dealt plenty of starters, but might be at least in the wild-card hunt. I am not sure most teams would take on the bulk of Zack Greinke’s contract, plus the Diamondbacks are playing like contenders.
Should the Blue Jays not perform better, free-agent-to-be Marco Estrada almost certainly would be dealt and could be evaluated as a better buy than Cole or Quintana. A step down would be Philadelphia’s Jeremy Hellickson and Kansas City’s Jason Vargas. Both have pitched well in their walk years, but neither would be viewed at the quality of Cole or Quintana.
The Yankees sure look like a contender that will be looking for a high-end starter. They may not love Cole and/or Quintana, especially because they are more protective than ever of their best prospects. But that duo represents what the Yankees would crave: top talent that is under contractual control ( Co l e through 2019, Quintana through 2020) — because Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka can be free agents after this season.
The quirk when it comes to Cole and Quintana is that both, at one time, were exclusive Yankees property.
In 2008, the Yankees had the 28th overall draft pick. Players who would go in the next 20 selections included Lonnie Chisenhall, Jake Odorizzi, Lance Lynn, Wade Miley and Logan Forsythe, but the Yankees drafted Cole.
Cole, 18 at the time, had high-first-round talent, but was not selected earlier because he insisted he was going to UCLA and the righty came from the kind of rich family that suggested he did not need the instant money.
“It was not a flyer,” said Damon Oppenheimer, then, like now, the person who runs the Yankees’ draft. “We had the talent rated really high. He was stuffed up our board at like eighth or 10th [overall]. You get to 28 and he’s staring at you. We knew the signability would be tough, but we really thought we could get it done.”
The Yankees believed they had intelligence that Cole was more flexible than his public statements had indicated, including that he was a Yankees fan. Scott Boras was his advisor, so the Yankees knew it was going to cost them. They were believed to be willing to go to $4 million, which would have exceeded the $3. 58 million record for a drafted high school pitcher Rick Porcello had received the year before. But the family never even negotiated with the Yankees, and Cole went to UCLA. The Pirates drafted Cole with the first overall pick in 2011 and gave him an $8 million bonus. As for Quintana, the Yankees simply had to put him on the 40-man roster following a 2011 season in which he had gone 10-2 with a 2.91 ERA at High-A, bouncing between starting (12 games) and relief (18). “I know Cash [GM Brian Cashman] polled the whole organization [about putting Quintana on the 40], and there was not a lot of support for it,” said Mark Newman, now retired, but then the Yankees’ senior vice president of baseball operations. Quintana already had been released by the Mets after a PED suspension and had completed his age-22 season throwing in the 87-89 mph range, so the Yankees did not project much more fastball coming.
They elevated players such as David Adams, Zoilo Almonte, Corban Joseph and D.J. Mitchell to the 40-man and let Quintana become a six-year minor league free agent, but with the belief they would sign him back. But the White Sox were willing to sign him and put him on the 40-man roster, so he left.
His fastball climbed into the 90s and he has become among the majors’ most consistent/durable starters.
The White Sox, after dealing ace Chris Sale at the winter meetings, have had Quintana on the market, but no one has met the rebuilding team’s price. White Sox GM Rick Hahn repeatedly has said he will not undersell the asset because he controls Quintana from 2018-20 on a team-friendly total of $29.35 million.
The Pirates also can hold Cole, but a few factors could push them to act sooner: They are in last place; they held on to Andrew McCutchen and McCutchen’s value has fallen. Cole is still repped by Boras, and his price is about to climb steeply for an organization that always has bottomline concerns. Cole’s value, with 2 ¹/₂ years remaining before free agency, may never be higher.