The Cardinals Should Steal This Upcoming Free Agent Away From the Cubs After the 2020 Season

The St. Louis Cardinals made a real leap in 2019, jumping from third to first in the NL Central. The move was especially sweet for Cards fans as they sent their rival Chicago Cubs tumbling down to third in the division.

St. Louis can't be complacent if the Cards want to stay on top of the division though, and that's why it would be a terrific move to steal Jose Quintana away from the Cubs when he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2020 MLB season.

The Cards are set at the top of the rotation, but there's plenty of ambiguity with the last couple spots, and a vet like Quintana could be a strong addition.

He's coming off a disappointing 2019 season (posting career-worst 4.68 ERA), but a more reasonable 4.20 xFIP suggests he wasn't as bad as that ERA would indicate. He was still drawing swinging-strikes at about the same rate (8.3 percent) as his career average (8.4 percent), and he actually cut his walk rate (6.2 percent) and home runs per nine innings (1.05) down from where they were in 2018.

Quintana has also gone 5-3 in 11 career starts against the Cards, so it's an added bonus that they wouldn't have to go up against him any more.

The NL Central is one of the most competitive divisions in baseball, and shrewd moves like this one are exactly what the Cardinals need to make sure they stay on top.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.