The fantasy ramifications of the Jose Quintana blockbuster trade

On Thursday, The White Sox and Cubs broke unwritten baseball rules and made a cross-town blockbuster trade that made waves in the industry.

How does this affect the fantasy value of each player in the trade?

Arrows Up

Jose Quintana, SP

We all expected Quintana to be dealt eventually and now he’s found a new home in the National League. The lefty has had a strange season, upping his K/9 to 9.4 (career 7.6) but has given up more HR than ever before (1.2 HR/9 to a career 0.84 HR/9). The increased HR has led to an inflated 4.49 ERA, a run higher than his career norm.

With the move to the Cubs, we can expect some positive regression in all categories. National League batters as a whole hit slightly worse than their American League counterparts. Quintana now benefits from facing a pitcher 2-3 times a game. In addition, pitchers tend to adjust better when switching leagues as opposed to hitters.

Wrigley Field has been a better hitter’s park than Guaranteed Rate Field this season, so it seems the park change won’t be a big factor. Expect Quintana to start strong, but be wary of dangerous @MIL, @CIN starts.

Eloy Jimenez, OF

Ranked fifth in our just-released mid-season top 100 prospects list, Jimenez gets a slight boost because playing time is much clearer now when he comes up. The Cubs outfield has players under contract for the next few years (Happ, Heyward, Schwarber) while the White Sox have right field wide open.

Jimenez has some of the best power in the minor leagues so the park doesn’t make a difference, but it helps that the White Sox’s stadium is still hitter friendly. He can be a .290+, 35+ HR player at maturity. Expect his arrival in 2019.

Arrows Down

Dylan Cease, SP

Cease clocked in at 61st on our midseason list and the book on him is pretty straightforward: heat, heat, heat. Cease can touch 98 and sits 95-97 according to recent reports. He’s made strides with his changeup and curveball but still needs to continue developing command of the two to better his 12% walk rate.

That said, any move to the AL for a SP is suboptimal. The AL Central isn’t the AL East, but the worst teams (KC and DET) might still be average by the time Cease makes his debut in 2019.

Arrows...Nowhere

Matt Rose, 1B and Bryant Flete, 2B

Both Flete and Rose are organizational depth pieces that shouldn’t be rostered in even the deepest of dynasty leagues. Flete is 24 and hasn’t made it above Double-A. He’s currently in High-A for the second consecutive year and doesn’t possess much power or speed.

Rose is 22 and in High-A showing a fair amount of power (.253 ISO) but is struggling with strikeouts and a low walk rate.