Cubs’ Jose Quintana not your father’s Buick — or anybody else’s

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Quintana makes his first start on the South Side Friday since the White Sox traded him to the Cubs last year in a widely debated -- often criticized trade.

The comparison still grates on Jose Quintana two months later. And it still irritates teammates to think about it.

A Buick?

“I don’t know why he had to say that exactly,” said Quintana, the Cubs’ left-hander, with the help of a team translator. “But it was inconsequential really, because I’m here to do my job, and I know what I’m made of, and I know what I bring to the table, and what I bring to this team.”

Quintana brings it to the South Side for the first time Friday since the White Sox traded him to the Cubs in July last year for top prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease. And he looks like a pitcher on an October mission as he faces ex-teammates in the opener of a three-game series with a 3-1 record and 2.10 ERA in his last six starts.

It was that trade – specifically the price paid by the Cubs – that prompted Dave Kaplan, Chicago’s most prolific sports broadcaster, to suggest as Quintana struggled that the Cubs got a Buick when they thought they were trading for a Mercedes, Kaplan said.

The widely repeated and debated comparison angered catcher Willson Contreras enough that he fired back on social media.

“I’m not making any bones about it. I was upset and I was mad,” Contreras said through the translator, “because a lot of people don’t understand what it takes and what you have to do to go out there every fifth day and be on that pitcher’s mound and get the work done.

“I don’t think it was the right way of going about that,” he added, “because he does work hard and he does add a lot of value to this team.”

If the criticism resonated a little more in the clubhouse than other barbs that players regularly get when they struggle, maybe it’s because Quintana is especially respected by teammates for his work ethic, competitiveness and durability. Or maybe because the Cubs didn’t expect an ace and believe Quintana has been everything they expected.

Or maybe because some in the clubhouse wondered whether such an objectification would have been directed at a player without the cultural and language difference. “It’s kind of strange,” one teammate said.

Kaplan, a long-respected multi-media analyst and reporter, said it’s all about performance, with the same standards applied across the board – whether it’s Tacoma, Wash.-born Jon Lester and his $155 million contract or Colombia native Quintana’s return on a trade.

Would he have called Lester or Kyle Hendricks a Buick?

“I would hope that I would have and that I would be honest no matter who the player is,” said Kaplan, who has since hugged it out with Contreras. “I think people who have watched me for as many years as I’ve been on the air here, or listened to me, know that I try to be honest as much as I can to the best of my ability. I simply call it as I see it.

“In the end, the numbers are what the numbers are. If it’s Kyle Hendricks, Anthony Rizzo, Jose Quintana, Willson Contreras, I’m going to try to the best of my ability to call it as I see it.”

What’s certain is that the Cubs have seen the value in Quintana from the moment his rare 30-starts-a-year consistency and 3½ years of club control landed in their rotation at the All-Star break last year.

<em>A Buick</em>

A Buick

“It’s more than what he does on the mound for this team,” teammate Hendricks said. “He’s always working. And he’s got a purpose to everything he does. And it’s really evident, even talking to him, and I think that’s something that rubs off on the rest of us.

“And then when you see it show up with him making 30-plus starts year in and year out, it’s pretty unbelievable.”

When Quintana takes the mound Friday, it will mark his sixth consecutive year with 30 starts. There aren’t 10 pitchers in the majors who can make that claim.

<em>A Mercedes</em>

A Mercedes

Among those who aren’t on the list: Zack Greinke, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, Cole Hamels, Chris Sale, Felix Hernandez and Madison Bumgarner.

“I’m not thinking about who won a trade that I was involved in,” Quintana said. “I know I was in the middle of it. I know it was a huge trade. But I’m just trying to do my job, and that’s trying to help this team win a championship.”


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