A familiar face and former Chicago Cubs pitcher is back in the NL Central. According to Robert Murray, left-hander Jose Quintana and the Milwaukee Brewers are in agreement on a one-year deal worth $8 million. Quintana will join the fourth NL Central team of his career after spending the last two seasons with the New York Mets. He pitched for the Cubs from 2017-2020 and then spent time with both the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022. Milwaukee will be the eighth stop of his big-league career.

The lefty enjoyed success in both the regular season and postseason in 2024, as he finished with a 3.75 ERA in the regular season and a 3.14 in the playoffs, both of those being right around his career averages. He now joins a pitching rotation that lost both Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams in the offseason. The Brewers added both Nester Cortes (via trade) and Aaron Civale (via free agency), and they now add a veteran arm to the rotation.

According to RotoChamp, Aaron Ashby was expected to be the No. 5 starter in the Milwaukee rotation, but with the experience and success that Quintana brings, it is expected that he will take over that spot. Quintana has a career ERA of 3.90 when pitching in Milwaukee at American Family Field. Pair that with his career road ERA of 3.80 and the Brewers may have pulled off one of the sneakiest moves of the entire offseason.