A number of Colombian Africans shine in the Major League Baseball and professional baseball pitcher José Quintana is one of them. Debuting in 2006 with the Venezuelan Summer League (VSL) for the New York Mets-affiliated VSL Mets, Quintana spent the first five years of his career in minor baseball before joining the majors in late 2011 thanks to a contract with the Chicago White Sox.
All-Star 2016, José Quintana continues to improve his game year after year. Here’s everything you need to know about him.
Jose Quintana Biography
José Guillermo Quintana was born on January 24, 1989, in Arjona, Colombia. He began his professional baseball career in 2006 when, as an international free agent, he signed with the New York Mets. The Mets would send him to start with the Mets VSL of the Venezuelan Summer League. The following season, Quintana was disciplined for violating the league’s drug policy. As a result, he did not play any matches in 2007.
The following year, 2008, he was signed by the New York Yankees was sent to the Dominican Republic Summer League to play with their Minor League affiliate, the DSL Yankees 2. Quintana would then go on to playing for other Yankees affiliates including; the Gulf Coast Yankees, the Charleston RiverDogs and the Tampa Yankees.
Following the end of the 2011 season, Quintana became a minor league free agent after which he was signed by the Chicago White Sox, who had watched him throughout the 2011 season. After signing him on November 10, 2011 , the Sox sent Quintana to play with Birmingham Barons, their minor league affiliate.
Six months later, on May 7, 2012, he was promoted to the major league. However, he was sent back to the minor league, but would return before the end of the month to play a major game against the Cleveland Indians, where he was greatly impressed.
In March 2014, José Quintana impressed the Enough to win a 5-year contract extension. At the end of the 2014 season, he became a player eligible for “Super 2” arbitration, which allowed him to activate a clause that brought the total value of his contract to $26.5 million guaranteed. .
In 2016, the year he was named All-Star, Quintana was nominated for the American League’s Cy Young Award, but placed 10th. During the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he played for the Colombian national team as a pitcher. José Quintana was traded to the Chicago Cubs in July 2017 in exchange for four other players.
As of June 2018, José Quintana’s MLB stats were as follows:
Record wins and losses: 63–61
Cumulative average earnings: 3.56
Dams: 1,058
His wife and family
José Quintana is a proud husband and father judging by how frequently he swears about his wife and daughter on social media. On December 23, 2017, Quintana tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend, Michel Quintana (née Montana).
The baseball star’s Instagram page is awash with photos from his wedding as well as photos from vacation trips with his family. As we can see from the videos, Quintana and his wife Michel organized a very colorful wedding accompanied by fireworks.
It is not known when their relationship actually ended, but the couple, before getting married, welcomed a child together – a daughter named Ariadna Quintana, born on January 20, 2016. If Ariadna waited four more days, she could have shared the same birthday with his father born on January 24
The adorable little girl had a role to play in her parents’ marriage. Ms. Quintana, unlike her superstar husband, is very private. Her Instagram account where she has over 5.5,000 followers is private. However, our investigations enabled us to discover that Michel was a psychologist in training. Her Instagram bio reads; “Psicologa en formacion” which is Spanish for psychology information. She was born on April 13.
In an interview with the Spanish press El Universal, José Quintana said that his family was a “combat engine” and a “great motivation for him”.
As the MLB season approaches, Quintana’s family resides in an apartment on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. They also own a home in their home country of Colombia.