DENVER -- Jose Quintana spent Thursday morning at Coors Field fighting through sprints with a high-tension cord pulling against him, and the Rockies veteran still managed to keep the same smile he’s worn through a summer full of uncertainty.
That smile meant something more once manager Warren Schaeffer told him he’ll be back in the rotation before the 2026 season is over.
Quintana, 37, said he worried his career might be finished when a left elbow sprain sidelined him nearly four months ago. He chose a PRP injection over surgery, then went through the kind of recovery that leaves a player guessing at every turn. Even after a simulated game at Coors Field on Aug. 22 left him in so much pain that he thought the comeback had failed, Quintana kept going.
“After throwing that live BP, I felt really bad -- I didn’t know what happened,” Quintana said. “But the next week, I went to Arizona [to the Rockies’ complex] and everything changed.
Wow. Everything changed.
I started feeling better and better.
“Sometimes, we need to be patient. I learned you can’t speed [up] recovery. You have to go step by step.”
The Rockies had been planning to send him out Friday night against the Mariners, but Tanner Gordon’s rough outing in Thursday’s 9-2 loss to the Padres changed the math. Gordon allowed seven runs on 10 hits in three innings, and the bullpen usage forced the club to reconsider Quintana’s reinstatement date.
When Quintana does make his next start, it will be the 367th of his career, which ranks fourth among active pitchers behind Justin Verlander (556), Max Scherzer (490) and Patrick Corbin (369).
Colorado brought Quintana in on a one-year, $6 million contract before Spring Training as part of a veteran pitching group. Tomoyuki Suzuki was solid in the first half before fading after the break, and Michael Lorenzen was released in mid-August.
Quintana’s season didn’t start cleanly, but he found a groove in late April and May. From April 26 to May 18, he went 2-0 with a 3.04 ERA over five starts.
Three of those games came at Coors Field, and over that stretch he threw 26 2/3 innings with 16 strikeouts and eight walks as the Rockies went 4-1. Then came May 24 at Arizona, when he left the mound in pain after giving up six runs in 1 1/3 innings.
From that point on, the goal got much simpler: pitch again before the season ends.
“He’s a 15-year vet that got hurt in May -- it would be easy for a guy like that, with all that time, to just shut it down and call it a day,” Schaeffer said. “But he set an example for all the young players, and everybody around here about how to take something very difficult for him and turn it into a positive.”
Quintana’s time in Colorado may end with only a limited sample -- at most 11 starts this year, and possibly no more if he reaches free agency -- but he believes the experience has value for younger pitchers and for veterans the club may want to keep around while trying to strengthen its weakest area.
“The altitude is real -- it’s no joke,” Quintana said. “Talking about young guys, they’re trying to figure out how to make pitch movement at altitude and be consistently in the zone.
Then you go to sea level and everything changes. And you feel good and come back here.
Plus, recovery is a little harder.”
The Rockies liked that Quintana came in with an updated approach built around data, but his best stretch came when he stopped overthinking it and went back to basics.
“I don’t think it helps me to think about how to get more movement or anything like that,” Quintana said. “I’m more about results.
Whatever I need to do to get results, I want to do it. It’s simple.”
Schaeffer echoed that idea.
“In this game, you can make things so very complicated, and young players need to keep it simple - just get outs. For [Quintana] to say that, it speaks a lot of truth because he’s gotten outs for a long time.”
Quintana said he spoke with multiple teams last offseason, and the Rockies were one of three clubs that made offers. He is open to coming back.
He has made 10 postseason appearances in his career, including eight starts, and he said stepping back on the mound late in the season still carries a special edge.
“When I cross the lines, it’ll be like Game 7,” he said. “It could be your last opportunity.
You have to make the best effort you have. It’s a blessing to get the baseball again, and I’m still loving the game.”
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