Jose Quintana is the one that got away — from the Subway Series.
Who is Quintana? He played in both the Mets and Yankee systems before being plucked last offseason by the White Sox as a six-year minor league free agent. The lefty makes his eighth appearance and sixth start today against the Brewers, carrying a 2-1 record with a 1.53 ERA.
So why isn’t he doing this kind of work for either New York team?
Signed by the Mets out of Colombia in 2006, Quintana was suspended in March 2007 for testing positive for a banned substance while in the Venezuelan Summer League. The Mets released him when the suspension concluded in July 2007. Omar Minaya, then the Mets’ general manager, remembered the organization had “a strict policy about [failing a test in the minors] and we let him go.”
Quintana signed with the Yankees the following March. He reached High-A last year and went 10-2 with a 2.91 ERA. Yet the Yankees did not put Quintana on the 40-man roster, making him a free agent. GM Brian Cashman said they deliberated on the matter and, despite a dearth of quality lefties in the system, “We looked at him as a fringy prospect. We offered him a minor league contract to stay, but not a 40-man roster position. We didn’t feel he was ahead of other guys we gave spots to. It was a numbers game, but right now it does not look like a good decision.”
Quintana’s agent, Melvin Roman, wanted a 40-man roster spot for his client. And the White Sox were willing to accede to that because two of their scouts, Joe Siers and Daraka Shaheed, “made him stand out on the six-year free-agent list,” Chicago assistant GM Rick Hahn said. They saw a 23-year-old lefty with a clean, repeatable delivery, the ability to command fastballs to both sides of the plate, hints of a plus changeup and the makings of a usable slider.
Quintana went to Double-A, but was sped to the majors due to rotation injuries. A scout for an NL team who saw two of his major league starts reported a good fastball that Quintana cuts and sinks, but worried there was no clear swing-and-miss pitch, and also that the southpaw had a bad pickoff move and was slow to the plate, making him susceptible to stolen bases.