Chicago Cubs rumors: 4 pitchers who could replace Jose Quintana in the rotation
By Sean Sears
With Jose Quintana suffering a freak hand injury, the Chicago Cubs’ already thin starting rotation will be tested in a shortened season.
The Cubs are no stranger to freak injuries happening to their players. Kerry Wood hurt himself getting into his hot tub in 2007, Sammy Sosa gave himself back spasms from sneezing in 2004, so Jose Quintana hurting his hand while washing dishes is par for the course for the Cubs.
This is exactly the type of injury the Cubs didn’t need as it’s been well documented the Cubs have struggled to develop pitching since Theo Epstein took over in 2011. And while the Cubs do have some promising arms in their system, their elite-level arms are not quite MLB-ready.
Veteran starter Tyler Chatwood was assumed to have the 5th spot essentially wrapped up, so we’ll assume he slides into the 4th spot of the rotation. That leaves the 5th and final spot open as the Cubs will likely spend the most of their Spring Training 2.0 figuring out who that guy will be.
So here are the four names fans should be keeping tabs on as the MLB season gets underway.