Cubs' Arrieta went from a career crossroads to a Cy Young
To appreciate where Jake Arrieta is now in his Cubs career, you really need to think about where that career was when he got to Chicago.
When the Cubs obtained Arrieta in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles in July of 2013, they sent him right to Class AAA Iowa. At the end of the month, they brought him up for one start and promptly sent him back to Iowa.
In the spring of 2014, he came down with a shoulder ailment and opened the regular season on the disabled list.
It wasn't much later that Arrieta established himself as the ace of the Cubs pitching staff, and on Wednesday night, he was talking to the national media about winning the 2015 Cy Young Award.
Arrieta beat out Los Angeles Dodgers standouts Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw by garnering 17 of 30 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. The point totals were 169 for Arrieta, 147 for Greinke and 101 for Kershaw.
A 29-year-old right-hander, Arrieta went 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA and a WHIP of 0.86. He became the fifth Cy Young Award winner from the Cubs, joining Ferguson Jenkins, Bruce Suter, Rick Sutcliffe and Greg Maddux.
He was more than happy to reflect on his journey with the Cubs, which began with uncertainty at a career crossroads in July 2013.
"I think the most important aspect of my career at that point was to stay focused on the things that were most important," he said. "For me, that was continuing to put a lot of emphasis on my routine in between starts, understanding how to make the adjustments in between starts.
"It started to become something where I could adjust in game and then proceeded to making adjustments from hitter to hitter. Now it's something where I can make the adjustments from pitch to pitch, and that's what the best have to do to have success at an elite level. That was something that happened slowly for me at first. But once I was able to not worry about the moves that were happening above me or when I was going to get another opportunity, I understood the most important things to put emphasis on was just continuing to try to get better."
All three Cy Young finalists had strong cases.
Arrieta rode a dominant second half to the award. He ended the season with a streak of 20 straight quality starts, including a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium before a national TV audience on Sunday night, Aug. 30.
Greinke went 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA and a WHIP of 0.84, which led the NL. Kershaw, last year's Cy Young winner, had a record of 16-7 with an ERA of 2.13 and a WHIP of 0.88.
Arrieta, who remained the Cubs' ace despite the acquisition of Jon Lester last off-season, led major-league baseball with his 22 victories. His 1.77 ERA was the lowest by a qualifying Cubs starting pitcher since Grover Cleveland Alexander posted a 1.72 ERA in 1919.
From Aug. 4 on, Arrieta went 11-0 with an 0.41 ERA in 12 starts. The ERA is the lowest from Aug. 1 through the end of the season since ERA became an official stat.
"It's hard to put in perspective," he said. "I see the numbers on TV. People bring it up to me quite a bit. It's kind of crazy to even think about. Names like Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax and some of these other guys who were greats in this game for a lot of years, to be in that sentence with them, it sounds cliché, but it really makes you step back and really appreciate it."
Arrieta tossed a complete-game 4-hitter on Oct. 7 to beat the Pirates 4-0 in the wild-card playoff game. That start did not figure into the Cy Young Award because voters had to submit their ballots before the playoffs began.
He was not as sharp in the rest of the playoffs, but his regular-season innings total of 229 was a career high by far, surpassing last year's total of 156⅔. Arrieta said his body and arm were in good shape but admitted that "fatigue did set in."
As for the future, Arrieta said free agent Greinke would be a nice fit for the Cubs, who are looking for pitching help this off-season.
The Cubs have Arrieta under club control (he's eligible for salary arbitration) for two more years, and he said it's "inevitable" he and agent Scott Boras will sit down and talk with the Cubs about a long-term contract extension.
"I don't think there's a tremendous amount of angst on my part to get something done immediately," he said. "That doesn't mean something can't happen. Really, my focus right now is obviously to know that I'm still with the Chicago Cubs. I couldn't be more excited and happy for the opportunity we're going to have as a team in the future.
"That's something that if it happens, it does, we'll address it, we'll talk things over. If it doesn't I'm still a Chicago Cub regardless."
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