Los Angeles Angels: Jose Quintana signing is fine, but far from enough

The Los Angeles Angels have finally signed a starting pitcher, bringing in Jose Quintana on a one-year deal.

We’re less than a month away from teams reporting to spring training, but the Los Angeles Angels have finally signed a starting pitcher to help bolster their rotation, a unit that took a step forward in 2020, but still lacks the star-power to make a World Series run.

In their first attempt to address this need, the Los Angeles Angels inked left-handed pitcher Jose Quintana to a one-year deal, worth a modest $8 million. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was the first to break the news late Monday night.

The addition is a fine addition. Quintana has a history of logging a large number of innings during his nine-year MLB career with the Chicago White Sox and Cubs. He’s worked more than 200 innings in four of his nine seasons and going into 2020, hadn’t worked fewer than 171 innings since his rookie season 2012.

But if the Los Angeles Angels want to make a serious run at a World Series title and finally surround Mike Trout with the talent needed to do that, their rotation additions can’t stop with Quintana.

The 31-year-old logged just 10 innings last season due to a thumb injury, which isn’t an elbow or shoulder injury that could leave his new team worried about any potential setbacks in 2021.

Just looking at his recent history with the Cubs, Quintana has posted a FIP of 3.25, 4.43, and 3.80 and has been worth 7.3 Wins Above Replacement from 2017-2019 with the Cubs, pointing to a solid backend of the rotation piece.

If Quintana is healthy again in 2021, he has the potential to be a much better option than some previous names thrown into the rotation in recent years, but the Angels still need someone to lead the way in front of Quintana, Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, and Griffin Canning.

Los Angeles is expected to employ a six-man rotation, with one of those names being Shohei Ohtani. They could go one of two ways to finish filling out this unit.

Trevor Bauer is still on the market and the teams likely to sign him have dwindled in the last few days. This could open the door for a splash signing, bringing in a 2020 Cy Young winner to lead the rotation, or they could spread the money around a little bit.

Masahiro Tanaka and Jake Odorizzi are both still available on the free agent market and while neither arm is an ace to lead the staff, adding three established veterans would be a welcomed sight to Angels fans.

The American League West is there for the taking in 2021. Texas and Seattle are another year or two away from competing for a playoff spot, Houston has lost a large portion of their offensive production, and Oakland is still a solid team, but hasn’t been active this offseason in addressing a few big holes on their roster.

While signing Jose Quintana is a low-cost move with some upside, it’s not quite enough for the Los Angeles Angels if they want to finally take the next step.