February 12: Colorado has officially announced Quintana’s deal. The veteran will replace the right-hander on the 40-man roster Jeff Criswellwho was placed on IL for 60 days. Criswell had Tommy John surgery in March.
February 10: The Rockies followed their lead Michael Lorenzen again Tomoyuki Sugano signing another free agent contract for the top starter. Colorado is reportedly left-handed friendly Jose Quintana on a one-year contract, pending a physical contract. ACES client secured $6MM. The Rox will need to make room on the 40-man roster once the signings are completed. Jeff Criswellwho underwent Tommy John surgery last March, is a candidate for the 60-day disabled list.
Quintana signed on the eve of Spring Training after waiting until early March to sign last winter. He received a deferred guarantee of $4.25MM with the Brewers that may have been below expectations coming off a 3.75 ERA in 31 starts for the Mets. Quintana was able to get good results in Milwaukee as well, allowing a 3.96 earned run average in nine over 131 2/3 innings.
There weren’t a lot of encouraging fundamental numbers. Quintana’s results are over four consecutive seasons. He’s never been a power hitter, but his already pedestrian velocity and swing-and-miss rate have declined in his mid-30s. Last year’s 16% strikeout rate was his lowest since the 14% mark he posted in his rookie season in 2012. His sinker and four-seam fastball each land in the 90-91 mph range on average. Neither pitching southpaw misses many at-bats, and last season’s 6.9% swing rate was the second-lowest mark for a pitcher who reached 100 innings.
While the 37-year-old doesn’t have a huge ceiling at this stage of his career, he should raise the floor after Warren Schaeffer’s turnaround. The pitch-to-contact technique keeps his movement organized. Quintana has no notable platoon splits and mixes five pitches (sinker, changeup, curveball, four-seam fastball, and slurve). A deep arsenal seems to have some interest in Rox’s front office and coaches. Lorenzen throws seven different pitches, while Sugano has a six-pitch mix.
“We talked about this a lot internally,” first-year coach Alon Leichman told Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post last week. “We want big weapons. We think big arsenals are going to be hard to game plan against. You know, if a guy has six, seven pitches, that’s harder to game plan than if a guy has two or three, right? So we think that’s an advantage. If you have more weapons, you can be random.”
The Rockies have committed just over $19MM to add three veteran players. They will join Kyle Freeland such as circuit breakers. Ryan Feltner again Chase the Dollar he will probably enter the fifth tournament as things stand. There’s a good chance that an injury during spring training clears things up. Feltner missed most of last season with back problems. Quintana himself had IL strains for shoulder impingement and calf strain, respectively.
While it remains the worst turnaround in the majors, the Rockies don’t want a repeat of last year’s historically bad performance. Colorado’s starting pitching staff in 2025 had a 6.65 ERA which was the highest of any MLB full season in history. This season’s team should at least be significantly better than that.
Neither Lorenzen, Sugano nor Quintana are likely to fetch much at the trade deadline even if they hold decent results away from Coors Field. They are all sixth form beginners/competitors. However there is an advantage to having experienced arms to take a few innings and work with Dollander and the prospects Gabriel Hughes again Sean Sullivaneach of which is likely to arise at some point in 2026. Less likely to need to be relied upon. McCade Brown again Tanner Gordon the first of the season.
This would push Colorado’s projected salary to $120MM, as calculated by RosterResource. They opened last season with $122MM and appear to be planning a spending pattern similar to Paul DePodesta’s first season as president of baseball operations.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the Rockies and Quintana had a deal. Robert Murray of FanSided reported a $6MM guarantee. Photo courtesy of Mark Hoffman, Imagn Images.
