Cal Quantrill Rumors: 5 Best Trade Fits at the Deadline

Since the Colorado Rockies entered the league in 1993, few pitchers have had success for the franchise.

But Cal Quantrill — acquired in a November trade after being designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians — has managed to rebound nicely in 2024, despite making his home starts at Coors Field.

Across 90 innings this season, Quantrill is 6-5 with a 3.50 ERA and 1.0 fWAR.

Certainly, it’s fair to wonder if some regression is coming based on Quantrill’s 4.34 FIP. At the same time, while he hasn’t been a disaster at Coors Field with a 4.05 ERA in seven home starts, he has a 3.06 ERA in nine road outings this year. So if you remove pitching at mile high for around half of his starts from the equation via trade, that could help to fend off some of that regression.

The Rockies often operate curiously at the trade deadline, even though they are typically all-but mathematically eliminated from the postseason picture. So it’s not impossible that owner Dick Monfort and general manager Bill Schmidt opt to hold onto Quantrill with the belief he could be their ace in 2025.

But Quantrill’s trade value will probably never be higher considering both how well he’s pitching and that any team acquiring him would be getting him for parts of two seasons. So the guess here is Quantrill is ultimately dealt before the July 30 trade deadline. With that in mind, here are five potential trade landing spots.

Milwaukee Brewers

As we wrote previously when suggesting that Erick Fedde could be a good fit for the Brewers, general manager Matt Arnold probably needs to add multiple starters behind Freddy Peralta for Milwaukee to hold onto their lead in the NL Central.

If Quantrill is the second-best starter that the Brew Crew add before the deadline, that would make them one of the biggest winners of trade season. Would Quantrill be a great option to start Game 3 of a postseason series? Perhaps not, but you have to get there first, and he would help them in that quest. And he would probably still be an improvement over what the Brewers have internally now.

Additionally, Quantrill would give the Brewers a starting option for 2025 behind the aforementioned Peralta and Brandon Woodruff, who will be back after missing this campaign recovering from right shoulder surgery.

Boston Red Sox

If chief baseball officer Craig Breslow wants to make a minor addition but not harm the team’s future as the Red Sox try to grab one of three Wild Card spots, Quantrill would make sense.

Quantrill would improve the back end of Boston’s rotation for 2024, which could prove crucial if the race for the final Wild Card spot in the American League comes down to a game or two.

Additionally, Quantrill being under contract for 2025 means he could be insurance if Nick Pivetta departs in free agency this offseason.

San Diego Padres

The Padres selected Quantrill with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, and after he posted a 4.79 ERA over his first 33 career MLB appearances, traded him to Cleveland in the Aug. 2020 deal that netted San Diego RHP Mike Clevinger.

Past history can sometimes prevent trades from taking place, but from a baseball sense, Quantrill would make sense for the Padres.

With Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove both on the injured list, it’s become clear that the Padres need to improve their rotation depth. Quantrill would help them to do that, which could be crucial to securing one of the National League’s Wild Card spots, which president of baseball operations A.J. Preller may need to save his job.

Houston Astros

The Astros’ starting rotation has been hit hard by injuries this season. Justin Verlander is currently on the 15-day injured list for the second time this season with neck discomfort. He’ll be back, but neither José Urquidy and Cristian Javier will be as they recover from Tommy John surgery.

It’s apparent that for the Astros to extend their streak of seven consecutive playoff appearances, they need to add to manager Joe Espada’s rotation. General manager Dana Brown has been adamant that the Astros don’t plan to sell, and considering they are very much in both the AL West and AL Wild Card races, why should they?

Still, there may be a limit to how much the Astros invest in trying to sneak into the playoffs in 2024. Quantrill would allow the Astros to improve their rotation for the remainder of this season, and potentially get into the playoffs. Even if Houston doesn’t make the playoffs, Quantrill would provide starting rotation depth in 2025, which is valuable considering Verlander’s future is uncertain and both Urquidy and Javier won’t be ready to open the season.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals are another team still in position to win either an underwhelming division or grab a Wild Card spot, but probably not going to push the chips to the center of the table on winning a World Series in 2024.

Quantrill would be a clear upgrade over what the Cardinals have received from both Miles Mikolas or Steven Matz this season. If the Cardinals snuck into the playoffs and got hot, Quantrill would become a candidate to be a Game 4 starter in a seven-game postseason series.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak also has to consider what his rotation will look like in 2025. Gray is under contract for three more seasons, and unfortunately for the Cardinals, both Matz and Mikolas are signed up for another year. But while both Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson have given the Cardinals some good innings this season, each are at an advanced age and have club options for 2025 in their contracts.

In Quantrill’s final year of arbitration eligibility, he would likely be cheaper than exercising the options of Lynn and/or Gibson.