Jose Quintana's first start against the White Sox will come Friday

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Well, the opening game of this weekend's Crosstown series on the South Side just got a lot more interesting.

The Cubs are juggling their rotation a bit as they head toward the postseason, and in doing so, Jose Quintana is now scheduled to pitch against his former club Friday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. It will be the first time he's faced the South Siders since last summer's trade that sent him to the other side of town.

Rick Hahn's front office shipped Quintana to the North Side in exchange for a package that included Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease. The trade initially looked like a winner for both teams, with the Cubs in win-now mode and the White Sox in rebuilding mode. It's looking even better for both sides at the moment.

Quintana has been on fire of late, with a 2.10 ERA in his last six starts. Meanwhile, Jimenez and Cease are arguably the two best prospects in the White Sox loaded farm system. Jimenez is ranked as the No. 3 prospect in the game after a big season swinging the bat, and Cease was the organization's best minor league pitcher this season, both guys sparking big expectations for the team's bright future.

While the Cubs have to be confident in Quintana with how well he's pitched of late, he's returning to a ballpark where pitching well didn't always end in wins. He infamously received an unbelievably small amount of run support during his otherwise terrific tenure on the South Side and posted just a 22-27 record in his 84 games (all but two of which were starts) at Guaranteed Rate Field. Of course, the win-loss record doesn't reflect the 3.59 ERA he posted there in a White Sox uniform.

Quintana will almost surely get a nice ovation from White Sox fans, who treated also-traded starting pitcher Chris Sale well in his return to the South Side last season, but this Crosstown series could have a little more meaning than most. The Cubs remain in a tight division battle with the Milwaukee Brewers, meaning the White Sox have an opportunity to play spoiler. And while Quintana won't be trying to strike out Jimenez or battling against Cease, his former club could have an opportunity to pour some rain on the Cubs' late-season parade.

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