As Further Evidence of Wild Pitching Market, Mets Just Gave José Quintana $26M
The pitching market continues to exceed all expectations and the latest move makes the Cubs’ deal with Jameson Taillon look even better. After being left for dead in 2021, José Quintana bounced back with the Pirates and Cardinals to post a 2.93 ERA over 32 starts. That was enough to convince the Mets to give him a two-year contract worth $26 million, easily the largest deal of his career in terms of AAV.
Free-agent left-hander José Quintana in agreement with Mets on a two-year, $26M contract, pending physical, sources tell me and @WillSammon.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 7, 2022
Quintana got $26.5 million over five years from the White Sox, which was why he seemed so valuable to the Cubs as a would-be No. 2 starter. He later signed a one-year pact with the Angels for a then-personal-record $8 million AAV in 2021. Man, this is wild. I wish him the best, but his time with Cubs left me scarred.
In other pitching news, Kenley Jansen easily beat projections by getting $32 million over two years with the Red Sox.
Ed. Note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly listed Q’s deal as $32 million because someone is a big Freudian dummy who conflated it with the Jansen contract.
