While the Cubs offseason has swirled with plenty of drama, there is one storyline flying under the radar: Jose Quintana’s control. Between 2014-16, Q’s walk rate ranged between 5.1-6.3 percent, which, according to Fangraphs, is above average or great. In his last two years, that rate has skyrocketed to 7.7 and 9.2 percent, the latter of which is awful.
Quintana started the game well with a strong first three innings but quickly unraveled in the 4th. All in all, there were some major positives from his outing today. When things looked like they were completely going off the rails, Quintana limited the damage to only two runs and got out of a pinch with two men on base; last year, those types of innings gave biggest fits.