Jake Arrieta won his 20th game last night with a masterful 3 hit, 11 strikeout, complete game shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers. The records he has accumulated this season, especially for his post-All Star Break work, have been numerous. Last night’s gem gave him 18 consecutive quality starts, a modern era (post-1914) Cubs record. His 0.48 ERA in his last 10 starts is the fourth best mark in 100 years. Arrieta’s 0.86 ERA since the break could potentially be the first sub-1.00 ERA after the baseball’s mid-season classic in the game’s history. Think about the best pitching seasons ever. Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 or Pedro Martinez’s 1.74 ERA in 2000 spring first to minds of older and newer fans. Not even those Hall of Famers could replicate some of the things the Cubs ace has done in 2015. With all that being said, it is hard to think fathom that a pitcher with the potential to post these otherworldly statistics, in the midst of a playoff run no less, was just an afterthought in a trade where the prize was Scott Feldman.
Arrieta was a fifth round pick by the Orioles out of TCU in 2007 after being drafted two previous times out of high school and junior college. He made his professional debut a year later and quickly made his presence felt throughout the minor league community. He cruised through his first year with the Frederick Keys in High-A ball in 2008 (6-5, 2.87 ERA, 120 K in 113 innings). Coming into 2009, Arrieta was ranked 67th in the vaunted Baseball America Prospects rankings. He followed his debut season with an even better showing. He pitched to a 2.59 ERA with 2 complete game shutouts in 11 starts at Double-A before being promoted again to Triple-A. He would finally show some vulnerability at the highest minor league level, but would prove that he belonged in the class of other top Orioles prospects Brian Matusz, Garrett Olson, and Pedro Beato. All of Arrieta’s contemporaries were first round picks with big signing bonuses.
Arrieta slid to #99 in the pre-2010 Top 100 Prospects but not because he was viewed as less of a player. It was primarily because the prospects list is used to rank minor league talent and the compilers just didn’t believe Arrieta would be in the minor leagues that much longer. They would be proven correct. Arrieta was stupendous in his 11 starts for Triple-A Norfolk in 2010, posting a 6-2 record with a ridiculous 1.85 ERA and .189 BAA. That was good enough sign for the Orioles, who were rock bottom in the American League East, to give him the call to the Show. That’s where it all started to go down hill.
The right hander was pounded early and often in 18 starts for the O’s, and his lack of control didn’t help matters much. He walked (48) nearly as many men as he struck out (52) and finished the end of 2010 with a ghastly 1.53 WHIP, the 11th worst mark in the American League among pitchers who made at least ten starts. His confidence was broken and it showed. But, Baltimore was a bad team and Arrieta was a cost effective option heading into 2011. So instead of getting a chance to tinker with his mechanics and rebuild his confidence down on the farm, Arrieta was fed to the ravenous wolves of the AL East once again. The results went just as you’d expect.
Baltimore’s improved offense kept Arrieta’s win/loss record above .500 (10-8) but his 2011 peripherals were just as miserable as they were his rookie year. His ERA ballooned to 5.05, he walked 4.45 per nine innings, and he also surrendered 21 home runs, more than double the amount he gave up the year before. It got even worse in 2012. The ERA jumped up another full point to 6.20 and he posted his worst batting average against of his career at .272. Even demotions to the bullpen and the minors couldn’t do more than amplify his strikeout numbers.
It was a nightmarish beginning to a career that many thought had great promise. As him and his fellow hurlers of the future continued to flounder, the organization was looking to press the reset button on their perceived-to-be failed experiment. Olson was shipped out near the beginning of Arrieta’s tenure. Beato was unprotected in the 2010 Rule 5 Draft and was selected by the Mets. Matusz became a middle reliever full time. All that was left to wipe the slate clean was Arrieta. That is when he and fellow cast-off Pedro Strop were dealt to Chicago for minor league backstop Steve Clevenger and the immortal Scott Feldman. Changes of scenery have proved fruitful in the past for many a player, but nobody could have foreseen the transformation as a pitcher that Arrieta would undergo following his arrival at Wrigley.
You could see immediately from his first games with the red “C” on his chest that Arrieta had a new lease on life on the North Side of the Windy City. Gone were the images of his 7.23 ERA from the first half of 2013 as his assumed dormant breaking pitch arsenal began to cut and weave all over the strike zone again like he was back at TCU in the College World Series. His nine games to finish off the year for the Cubbies all but secured him a rotation spot for 2014 on merit instead of just being the cheapest option.
His past two full years for the Cubs have been nothing short of spectacular. He finished ninth in the NL Cy Young voting a season ago, despite getting a late start to the season due to an injury in Spring Training. Many thought his tailing off towards the end of the season was a signal of a return to his previous form, but those people should have also noted that his 156 2/3 innings were the biggest workload of his career and were more compacted after missing the season’s first month. Even with that slide mixed in, his 2.53 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and his 167/41 K/BB ratio were sparkling. And boy did he have an encore this year.
Twenty wins, 220 strikeouts, four complete games (three of which were shutouts), and a no-hitter against the Dodgers encompass a season for the ages not only for Arrieta, but in the history of baseball. Jake Arrieta can further his legend by getting the Cubs out of the Wild Card round and deep in the playoffs. He would probably have his number retired on the spot if he were able to twirl the gem that won the Cubs their first World Series since 1908. In the interim, he may just have to settle for the NL Cy Young and the adulation of every person donning the North Side pinstripes along West Addison Street, in a constant state of reminiscence about how far he’s come.