5 reasons to love the Jose Quintana deal for the Cubs

4. Mike Montgomery moves back to the bullpen

In addition to stabilizing the starting rotation with this move, the Cubs can also upgrade their bullpen in the process by sliding left-hander Mike Montgomery back to the bullpen when John Lackey and Kyle Hendricks return at some point in the second half. Montgomery was pressed into service in the rotation in early June, and the results have been hit-or-miss.

Montgomery’s first 18 appearances of the season came in relief, and he threw 36.2 innings with a 2.21 ERA and 26 strikeouts. As a reliever, Montgomery held opposing hitters to a .210/.329/.266 slash line and only gave up one home run. In his six starts that followed, he went 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA while yielding three home runs and a .728 OPS.

The Cubs are not the first team to try and figure out the best way to use Montgomery at the MLB level. He debuted with the Seattle Mariners as a highly-regarded rookie in 2015 and threw two complete-game shutouts in his first 16 starts in the big leagues. There is obviously great stuff in his left arm, but Montgomery has been hurt by control issues at every stop of his professional career.

Pitching out of the bullpen clearly suits Montgomery much more than starting. For his career, he has made 61 appearances out of the ‘pen and has a solid 2.25 ERA with a .604 OPS against. When he starts, Montgomery gets hit much harder and has a 4.45 ERA with 17 more home runs allowed in only 50 more innings of work. When he moves back to the bullpen, the Cubs will have their solid multi-inning reliever in Mike Montgomery.