Astros Rumors: Beware the price of a Jose Quintana deal.

Are the Astros in talks for Jose Quintana?

Most talking heads around baseball feel like the Astros need to update the rotation to win big. While the current rotation is good enough to win in the regular season, will it be enough for potential playoffs? Despite the question marks surrounding Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers, you have to count on them. The latest Astros rumors have them chasing Jose Quintana, but will they land him?

I don’t want to discount the emerging Joseph Musgrove, Collin McHugh, or Charlie Morton. These three pitchers could be good with Musgrove potentially becoming the better of the three. If you are going into a Game 3 of the ALCS versus the Red Sox, you confident in any of those three versus their big 3? Musgrove might fit the bill, but will he be on a innings limit this year?

People keep on asking me who I think the Astros will trade for. If Chris Archer is really not available as people are saying, the next best option would be Jose Quintana. There are other cheaper options, but he is a workhorse pitcher, pitching 200 plus innings the past four years. With a better offense behind him, he could become one of the top pitchers in the game.

Is he better than Chris Sale? Probably not, but he is in high demand with Sale off the market. Quintana has a 46-46 career record with a career 3.41 ERA with 781 strikeouts in 951 innings. Last season, he pitched well in 2016 for a bad White Sox team with a career-high 5.2 WAR. His career WAR of 20.5 in five years is good. The left-handed pitcher is under team control for four years.

A look at Quintana.

Quintana has $15.85 million guaranteed over the next two years plus two club options for $22 million. In this market, that’s a fairly reasonable price for a proven pitcher. When the White Sox traded Sale, it opened the door for any other players. However, Astros fans must be cautious of the price it would cost to trade for him. The White Sox have overhauled their minor leagues with two deals so far. The rankings were from MLB Pipeline.

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Adam Eaton for…

Lucas Giolito (Nationals #1)

Reynaldo Lopez (Nationals #3)

Dave Dunning (Nationals #6)

Chris Sale for…

Yoan Moncada (Red Sox #1)

Michael Kopech (Red Sox #5)

Luis Basabe (Red Sox #8)

Victor Diaz (Red Sox #28)

Brian McTaggart tweeted, “As far as acquiring Jose Quintana, the price is really high from what I’ve heard.” It has been said that more teams were interested in Quintana than Sale. The Nationals were interested, but they just gave up that haul for Eaton. We may have been given a sneak peak today by Jon Heyman as to what the price would be.

While the Astros don’t have a Hunter in their minor league system, you would have to assume that it’s either Derek Fisher or Kyle Tucker. They are both outfielders, which is what Heyman said Hunter was. So the highlight of the package would be Francis Martes and Fisher or Tucker among others. That’s a steep price, but look at what the White Sox have acquired thus far. The Nationals were interested in Quintana, now the Astros considered the favorite.

Next: Astros miss out on Sale, they wanted Alex Bregman

Phil Rogers just said on MLB Network that Quintana could be on the move soon, the Astros are involved. He said that they are far along, but haven’t said they were close. Get ready if that is true.

***Stats and salary from Baseball-Reference***