The Cubs had excellent pitching for most of the year, if you remove Edwin Jackson from the equation. Chris Bosio is excellent with young pitchers, and the Cubs are in a position to obtain additional pitching talent through free agency.

Why consider trading your three hitter for a guy like Quintana?

■Anthony Rizzo hit .286/.386/.527, and increase of 53 points in BA from last year, 63 points in OBP, and 108(!) points in SLG. That’s an overall OPS increase of 171 points. Good Lord.
■Rizzo’s .397 wOBA was the 7th best in all of baseball, and third best in the NL, behind only Andrew McCutchen and Giancarlo Stanton. His 153 wRC+ was 9th best in baseball – once again, behind only McCutchen and Stanton in the NL.
■Rizzo’s 5.3 WAR was a 3.6 win improvement over last season. It made Rizzo the 16th most valuable offensive player in baseball, tied with guys like Robinson Cano, Jose Abreu, and Miguel Cabrera.
■Rizzo hit 32 homers, second most in the NL, despite missing 22 games (Giancarlo Stanton was first at 37, and he missed 17 games – that guy’s a freak).
■Rizzo did all of this with beautifully sustainable peripherals. His 18.8% K rate was a slight tick up from last year, but still below league average. His 11.9% walk rate was 16th best in baseball (tied, incidentally, with teammate Luis Valbuena). Rizzo’s .311 BABIP was essentially identical to the .310 mark in his rookie year, making last seasons’s .258 look more like the outlier than the baseline.
■Rizzo was also the 5th best defensive first baseman by UZR/150.

a guy like Quintana fits perfectly into the Cub rotation and is likely the top starter by the time they finally allow Bryant to be a major leaguer

Is Lester the right fit? Didn't Quintana have a better year? LOOK. AT. HIS. FIP.

Quintana requires giving up an integral position player. Lester you just give money. If I have to suffer looking at ads and finding the cubs game on CubsNet channel 56.3 I better see that cash in use.

If the Cubs were in a position like the Tigers where they have Miggy, Martinez, Kinsler etc to help offset losing a position player I say sure look into the trade.

The Cubs had excellent pitching for most of the year, if you remove Edwin Jackson from the equation. Chris Bosio is excellent with young pitchers, and the Cubs are in a position to obtain additional pitching talent through free agency.

Why consider trading your three hitter for a guy like Quintana?

He did? Maybe to a crazy ass fickle Cubs fan. I'm not suggesting that Eaton, Abreu, or Davidson are Hall of Fame caliber players. But I'll stack them up against Almora, Rizzo, and Bryant for their careers and feel real comfortable going forward. And nobody is constantly referring to the guy who found them as a "genius".