NEWSLETTER
Jose Quintana has been out since the beginning of Summer Camp, after a home accident left him with a sliced pitching thumb, which required surgery to repair. At the time of the injury, the hope was that he could start throwing within a couple of weeks if things healed well. And, indeed, earlier this week, we found out that things were still on track for his program to begin by Friday.
Well, fast-forward a couple days and a report from Jon Heyman suggests things could start as soon as tomorrow:
Jose Quintana’s checkup went well, his stitches came out and he’ll start tossing tomorrow, via NL sources. Team will know more once he ramps up. Quintana suffered the cut thumb injury washing his dishes, specifically his wine glasses. #Cubs
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 15, 2020
Since this news largely tracks with the expectations set by Brett earlier in the week, I’ll re-share some of what he had to say about this sort of timeline on Monday:
That would obviously be great news if Quintana can start throwing already, and it’s conceivable he could get his arm into game shape within a few weeks. That would be just a couple weeks into the regular season. But what we still can’t know is whether his effectiveness will be compromised by the injury and/or the erratic process of this year (for which he now has an added layer of weirdness).
I am happy to see the good update, and I’ll be happy to see when Quintana is throwing. The Cubs have big questions on their starting pitching depth. That said, I still think you have to operate on the presumption that Alec Mills is gonna make more starts for the Cubs this year than Quintana. It’s a bummer, but the season is so very short, and it starts next week. A sliced pitching thumb that required surgery – it’s just the kind of thing that’s hard for me to mentally shake it off.
We’ll keep you updated if there’s more, and we’ll obviously keep close tabs on his progress, which begins tomorrow!
