(670 The Score) While Cubs left-hander Jose Quintana’s final stat line was mediocre in his return Tuesday evening, the team was encouraged by what it saw.
Quintana made his season debut in a 7-1 loss to the Tigers after being activated from the injured list following surgery in early July to repair a left thumb laceration. He went three innings while working in a relief role, allowing three runs on four hits and a walk while striking out three. He threw 55 pitches.
“For Q, I think it was a great, great outing,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Wednesday morning. “The first three innings were really good. I think he was under control. I think he did a good job mixing in pitches, mixing in a few of his new cutter – not his new cutter, his old cutter, the cutter he had when he was with the White Sox a little earlier in his career. But he mixed a few of those pitches in too. I thought he did a good job. He was admittedly in that last inning a little tired. I think getting to that 50-55 pitch mark was something that he’d only done once in rehab getting back.”
In Hottovy’s mind, there were “definitely a lot of positives to take out of that night” for Quintana as well as right-hander Tyler Chatwood, who lasted just 1 1/3 innings in his first start since coming off the injured list due to back soreness.
Quintana’s exact role “is still up in the air” moving forward, Hottovy said. He’s working out of the bullpen now, but with the Cubs playing a doubleheader this Saturday and then again the following weekend, Quintana could be called upon for a start. The Cubs could also use the Chatwood-Quintana tandem in a piggyback fashion in which they’d be expected to handle the workload of a full game, allowing the bullpen a breather and the Cubs to use their relievers more aggressively the day before and after.
“We could be creative in how we do some of those things, either doubleheader days or the day after the doubleheader,” Hottovy said. “You could easily have Chatwood and Quintana or Quintana and Chatwood, however you lay out the order, pitch the day after the doubleheader. Having that allows you to be more aggressive in the doubleheaders days.
“There’s a lot of things that we can do with what we have.”