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June surge puts White Sox lefty Quintana back on radar as top trade target

Remember when Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jose Quintana was laboring on the mound and diminishing his trade value with each bad outing?

Yeah, me neither.

Entering the season as the Sox's best pitcher and best trade chip, Quintana was 1-4 with a 5.22 ERA at the end of April. The 28-year-old lefty was 2-7 with a 5.60 ERA a the end of May, describing his final start of the month as "a little embarrassing."

There has been no swoon in June.

Facing the Yankees on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, Quintana allowed 2 hits over 6⅓ scoreless innings. He will finish June 2-1 with a 1.78 ERA.

What changed?

"I throw all of my pitches," Quintana said. "I'm using more changes now. Sometimes bad games are going to happen. But when it happens, I go check the video to see if I'm doing something wrong and try to make adjustments. But I feel pretty good and I have my confidence high."

Kevan Smith caught Quintana's start against New York and had high praise for the White Sox's rejuvenated ace.

"He just had all of his pitches," Smith said. "He could throw all of them for strikes. He had confidence with each pitch. He trusted whatever I put down. When he's hitting his spots, he's working both sides of the plate with his off-speed, he's unhittable.

"He can almost be a guy when he only has two (pitches) working he can be very successful. When he has the third and fourth one going it makes it fun to keep the hitters off balance."

With the nonwaiver trade deadline just more than a month away, Quintana is again looking like he's going to bring the Sox a big haul of young talent.

The Yankees need a starter, and Quintana is definitely on their radar.

During the off-season, there was a report the White Sox wanted catcher Gary Sanchez and starting pitcher Luis Severino for Quintana.

A Sox source strongly denied the rumor, but New York still has premium young talent to offer, including outfielders Clint Frazier and Blake Rutherford and third baseman/designated hitter Miguel Andujar, who debuted with the Yankees on Wednesday night and singled in his first 2 major-league at-bats.

The Astros, Dodgers and even the Braves also are rumored to be interested in Quintana.

The price is going to be high, especially with Quintana back on track and signed at a very reasonable rate through the 2020 season.

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn is hoping to continue rebuilding as the July 31 trade deadline nears, but he is not going to give anyone away, especially Quintana.

"I've said it way too many times," Hahn said. "If we had our wishes we would knock off four of these things in a row (last) December like I said after the (Adam) Eaton trade. We simply can't force this time frame. If we are going to move talented players, we have to get what we feel is the appropriate value back or it's not going to happen."

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