CHICAGO -- Jake Arrieta was one of the most dominant arms in baseball when he helped the Cubs end a championship drought spanning more than a century. Now, the veteran pitcher is reuniting with his old club for another ride with the remaining core.
On Friday night, sources told MLB.com that the Cubs were nearing an agreement with Arrieta on a one-year contract, pending physical. The deal is worth $6 million guaranteed, according to a source.
The Cubs have not confirmed the agreement.
Arrieta immediately injects veteran experience and brings an edge to a Chicago rotation that projects to feature Kyle Hendricks, Zach Davies, Trevor Williams and Alec Mills. Right-hander Adbert Alzolay will also be competing for rotation innings both in Spring Training and during the season.
The starting staff underwent a makeover this offseason, with veterans Jon Lester, José Quintana and Tyler Chatwood being allowed to exit via free agency, and the Cubs swinging a stunning trade that shipped Yu Darvish to the Padres for Davies and a quartet of young prospects.
New president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has made it clear that his goal for 2021 is to balance competing in the present with planning for the future. The latter is where the Darvish trade factors into the equation. Chicago has attempted to address the former with the recent signing of slugger Joc Pederson and this latest move to add Arrieta.
Back in 2015, when Arrieta cruised to stardom and helped pull the Cubs out of a rebuild and into World Series contention, the core group of Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo and Co. were a pack of talented, green baseball kids. Now, they are veterans chasing another ring and approaching free agency.
Báez, Bryant and Rizzo can all hit the open market as soon as next winter, with Contreras following suit after 2022. Kyle Schwarber -- a key part of the core -- was non-tendered earlier this offseason. Lester, who was the leader of the room and rotation, joined Schwarber as free-agent signings in Washington.
Arrieta, who will turn 35 on March 6, was a free agent this winter following a three-year, $75 million pact inked with the Phillies. Prior to the 2018 season, the Cubs did not re-sign the righty, opting instead to pursue and sign Darvish to his six-year, $126 million deal.
Over the past three years in Philadelphia, Arrieta went 22-23 with a 4.36 ERA in 64 appearances. That includes going 4-4 with a 5.08 ERA in nine starts during the abbreviated 2020 campaign. Last year, Arrieta struck out 32 and walked 16 in 44 1/3 innings.
That was a far cry from the sheer dominance on display in 2015, when Arrieta captured the National League Cy Young Award with 22 wins, a 1.77 ERA (including a 0.75 ERA in the second half) and 236 strikeouts vs. 48 walks in 229 innings.
Arrieta famously spun a shutout in the NL Wild Card Game in the 2015 postseason, announcing the Cubs' presence on the October stage. One year later, he started Games 2 and 6 in the World Series against Cleveland, helping the Cubs end their 108-year drought.
As it happens, Arrieta remains the last pitcher to win a playoff game for the Cubs, doing so in Game 4 of the 2017 NL Championship Series against the Dodgers. Chicago lost that series in Game 5 and has gone 0-3 in its two tastes of the postseason in the past three years.
The Cubs pulled off a transactional heist when they landed Arrieta (along with reliever Pedro Strop) in a July 2, 2013, trade with the Orioles. The righty went 68-31 with a 2.73 ERA in parts of five seasons for the Cubs, authoring a pair of no-hitters (Aug. 30, 2015, at Dodgers and April 21, 2016, at Reds).
No, Arrieta is not the same pitcher he was back then for the Cubs. The fastball does not have as much velocity and the right-hander has started to work in a changeup more often than in the past. And throughout all the adjusting, Arrieta has still managed to keep his ground-ball rate north of 51 percent.
With plenty of innings to offer, rotation depth needed and the pile of uncertainty facing the Cubs after the 2021 campaign, a reunion with Arrieta made a heap of sense for the North Siders.
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