The Cardinals' urgent search for a starter and wish to add a lefty merged Monday evening for a deal they rarely make, even at the deadline.
In a deal with division foe Pittsburgh, the Cardinals were working to complete a trade late Monday night for lefty Jose Quintana, ESPN.com first reported and a source confirmed. The trade also includes reliever Chris Stratton coming to the Cardinals, a source told The Post-Dispatch
The deal had not been announced by the team as it was being finalized.
Quintana, 33, is 3-5 with a 3.50 ERA this season for the Pirates.
In 20 games, all of them starts, he has struck out 89 batters in 103 innings, averaging slightly more than five innings per outing. He's walked less than 8% of the batters he faced, and while the Cardinals were looking to upgrade the amount of strikeouts their starters generate, Quintana does keep the ball on the ground to feed the Cardinals' defense.
He will bring a 12 2/3 scoreless streak into his next start for the Cardinals, and five of his 20 starts have been quality starts.
Quintana is a free agent at the end of the season and effectively replaces Steven Matz in the rotation for the next two months. Matz tore a ligament in his left knee, and the Cardinals are preparing for the likelihood he will not pitch again this season because of the injury.
This is the first trade with the Pirates since 2000 and the first within the National League Central for the Cardinals since 2015.
Quintana is six years removed from finishing 10th in the Cy Young Award and becoming a South Side sensation in Chicago before a deal to the Cubs. In 82 games with the Cubs, Quintana was 33-23 with a 4.24 ERA.
