Jose Quintana’s Whiff Rate Worst in MLB Over Last Month

Ugh, I hate talking bad about Jose Quintana’s recent performances because it makes me nauseous. I love Q’s attitude and we know he has so much potential. His stuff is still good and some of the metrics suggest his curveball might actually be better. But it’s hard to ignore the ugly truth: Q cannot buy a whiff.

Quintana’s 4.8 percent whiff rate over the last 30 days is the worst in MLB, just a touch below Mike Leake’s 4.9 percent rate. Just as discouraging is Q’s 5.2 swinging-strike rate, which is only 0.1 percent better than Trevor Williams and Bartolo Colon.

It’s fine if Q doesn’t get that many strikeouts — he’s made a career off of inducing weak contact — but batters hitting 95 out of every 100 pitches inside the zone will never be a recipe for success.