Jose Quintana eyes shot at elusive World Series in free agency after delivering in big Mets moments

The goal for Jose Quintana’s 2025 season, wherever it takes place: a championship.

The lefty will be returning for a 14th major league season, he said, after his hunt for his first World Series finished two wins shy of an appearance and six wins shy of a title.

Quintana has made it as far as the NLCS twice, first with the Cubs in 2017 and again with this season’s Mets, and has acquitted himself well in big moments, but has yet to reach the Fall Classic.

“For another year, I want to try one more time for a championship,” the 35-year-old said after the Mets were knocked out in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium. “This is the closest I’ve been in my career.”

There will be interest in the reliable southpaw, who pitched about as expected in two solid seasons in Queens in which he finished with a 3.70 ERA in 44 regular-season starts.

Quintana represents another successful development story for pitching coach Jeremy Hefner after first-half struggles began to place his rotation spot in jeopardy.

His nadir arrived June 9, when his ERA rose to 5.29 and after which manager Carlos Mendoza was prompted to publicly defend Quintana’s spot in the starting group.

Quintana responded, in time raised his arm slot to find more consistency, and emerged as one of the best in baseball at inducing hitters to chase pitches outside the zone.

In 2024, there were 157 pitchers who logged at least 80 innings pitched.

Of those 157, no one threw a lower percentage of pitches that finished inside the strike zone than Quintana (33.7).

And yet, because of the movement that led to plenty of soft contact and perhaps because the low velocity tempts hitters, he thrived anyway. From mid-June through the end of the season, Quintana’s 2.77 ERA in 18 starts was the 11th-best among qualified pitchers in baseball.

If there were any doubt Quintana remains a major league starter at this stage of his career, he pitched 11 innings without allowing an earned run to the Brewers and the Phillies in the first two playoff rounds before faltering in a 3 ¹/₃-inning, five-run NLCS start against the Dodgers.

Quintana, who had signed a two-year deal worth $26 million ahead of the 2023 season, again will hit free agency and said he wants to be back in Queens.

He likes New York, the Mets the seventh team he has played for, but understands that the market will have to develop.

There are some players who shrivel in the big-market spotlight. Quintana is not among them.

“I love the city. I learned a lot,” Quintana said. “Fans were amazing. A lot intense — I think the fans made me a better pitcher. Sometimes there was a couple boos, and it gave me more adrenaline.”

The Mets will have to fill a rotation that will see Quintana, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino hit the open market.

Quintana is open to a reunion in part because the Mets have set themselves up well for the future.

“One day I’m going to get that opportunity [to win a World Series],” Quintana said.