Jose Quintana was on the precipice of righting the ship for himself and the New York Mets on Wednesday before his strong start came crashing down in the sixth inning of their 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
Quintana did not allow a single run through his first five innings against Cleveland. He also struck out four batters. Then in the sixth, with two out and two on with a chance to close the inning and his day out unblemished, the Colombian-American allowed Andres Gimenez to blast a 391-foot three-run home run to center field, erasing the 3-0 lead the Mets held to that point. That was the first domino to fall in their collapse over the last three innings of the game.
Mets: Jose Quintana’s third poor performance in four starts in May is troubling
The blown start is Quintana’s third loss in his last four starts. It has also risen him to a concerning 5.13 ERA on the season, the second-worst of his career. His 1.367 WHIP is equally as damaging to the Mets.
The 35-year-old did good work on the mound for the Mets last season. Though his 33.3 percent winning percentage underwhelmed, he gave New York 60 strikeouts behind a 3.57 ERA and 3.52 FIP in just 75.2 innings pitched. Those solid numbers helped establish him as the Mets’ second option behind 2023 rookie All-Star Kodai Senga in the rotation.
Should the Mets consider demoting Quintana to fifth in the rotation once Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill return?
Albeit, on the current campaign, only Adrian Houser has put together a worse season than Quintana for the Mets. Luis Severino (2-2) and Sean Manaea (3-1) are both off to strong starts in 2024 with sub 3.50 ERA’s, while recent call-up Christian Scott has shown positive signs in his first three games and Tylor Megill returned from the IL to strike out seven with a 3.00 ERA on Monday, all while the Mets wait for their ace Senga to return from injury.
Even if the Mets were not about to have a fully healthy lineup for the first time this season, they’d have cause to pause concerning Quintana. Once at full strength, New York has serious grounds to consider pushing the former 2016 All-Star behind Senga, Severino, Manaea, and Megill to fifth spot, to which he’d have to look over his shoulder at Scott on his heels.