8 potential Quintana trade partners for White Sox

CHICAGO — Twenty teams reportedly have interest in signing free agent right-hander Tyson Ross. The list of clubs looking to deal for Jose Quintana is almost that long, and why not?

While Quintana has worked in the shadow of Chris Sale, he’s pitched more innings than Sale each of the last four years, and had a lower ERA in both of the past two seasons. He was 13-12 with a 3.20 ERA over 208 innings in 2016, his fourth consecutive year throwing at least 200 innings.

Quintana will be 28 next season, and he is under control for four years at a guaranteed $17.85 million (and only $37.85 million if the club options for 2019 and ’20 are exercised).

Who wouldn’t want some of that?

His talent fits on the roster of any team, and his contract works particularly well on contenders who have to watch their spending, such as the Pirates.

The Bucs are the subject of the latest Quintana rumors. But they’re just one of a myriad of teams that White Sox general manager Rick Hahn has remained in conversation with since trading Sale to the Red Sox and Adam Eaton to the Nationals for a stockpile of seven elite prospects at the Winter Meetings.

Those two trades were heavier on arms than bats, so the White Sox are looking more for advanced hitters than pitching prospects at this point.

Here are some possibilities for a Quintana trade that could come to fruition before Spring Training. When a prospect is mentioned, his MLB Pipeline club ranking is listed in parentheses.

CUBSProposal: Quintana for 2B Ian Happ (No. 1 prospect), 3B Jeimer Candelario (No. 4), OF Mark Zagunis (No. 5)

During the Sale talks, Hahn went out of his way to say he’s looking for the biggest return, even if it came from a crosstown rival. No team is in a better position to deal for Quintana than the Cubs, who have a stockpile of position-player prospects stuck behind the young lineup that looks set for the next three-to-five years.

Happ, who homered from both sides of the plate in the Arizona Fall League championship game, and Zagunis are on-base machines with enough power to hit 15-to-20 home runs. Candelario is a switch-hitter heading into his age-23 season, coming off a year in which he batted .283/.376/.464 between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa.

This is a lot to give up for Quintana, but every piece is expendable for the Cubs, who have long prioritized adding pitchers …

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