Not long ago, Jake Arrieta was a forgotten man on a fairly mediocre Baltimore Orioles rotation. After five starts in 2013, Arrieta had a Wins Above Replacement (WAR) of -0.7, and given up a whopping 19 runs in only 23.2 innings of work. After parts of four disappointing seasons with the Orioles, they decided to ship him off to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger. At the time, many thought of it as just a simple trade where the Cubs were going to take a chance on a former fifth round pick and also acquire a decent reliever in Pedro Strop in case Arrieta doesn’t work out.
Oh how the times have changed. Since the trade, Arrieta has gone 45-13 with an ERA of 2.19 and a WHIP of .934.
Evaluating the Greatness of Jake Arrieta
Last season, Arrieta won the NL Cy Young Award over three-time winner Clayton Kershaw who struck out over 300 batters with a 2.13 ERA over 232.2 innings pitched.
Arrieta has continued his dominance into the 2016 MLB Season, as he is currently undefeated with an ERA of 1.72. While Arrieta has gone on this incredible run, is he the best pitcher in all of baseball?
As of now, the only pitcher than is comparable to Arrieta is the 2014 MVP, Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw has been extremely successful for a multitude of years and has shown no signs of slowing down at age 28. The Dodger lefty is still in the prime of his career, while the prime of Arrieta’s career should be coming to an end during his age 30 season.
Despite Arrieta being at an age when most players start to decline and no longer be as effective as they once were, Arrieta seems to be thriving off of this. He is currently the only undefeated pitcher remaining in all of the MLB, and should be the frontrunner to start in the All Star Game for the National League. Already with his second career no-hitter this season, Arrieta has been simply phenomenal.
At this point, the argument between Arrieta and Kershaw becomes over whether short-term dominance becomes valued more than long-term excellence, and even that argument is a difficult one to make.
Starting with Kershaw, he has pitched 200 innings in five of his last six seasons, with the once exception being the 2014 season when he finished with 198.1 innings and won both the Cy Young and MVP award. He has a career ERA of 2.39, a career WHIP of 1.02, and has finished in the top three of the past five NL Cy Young Awards, with his lone exceptions coming in 2012, when he finished second to R.A. Dickey, and last season when he came in third behind Arrieta and his former teammate Zack Greinke.
Moving on to Arrieta, his dominance started only two seasons ago in the 2014 season, his first full season with the Cubs. He fixed up his mechanics over the offseason and those slight mechanical changes led to massive success for him. He went 10-5 with a 2.53 ERA in 156.2 innings with 167 strikeouts. During the offseason, the Cubs went out and signed Jon Lester to be the ace of their rotation. After struggling early on, Arrieta was there to pick up the slack and took over the title of being the Cubs’ top starter. Ever since then, Arrieta has not looked back, as after the All-Star break, Arreita set a record for the lowest ever second half ERA with 0.75 and struck out 113 batters over 107.1 innings. Arrieta has continued his dominance into this season, and this dominance has led to many calling him one of the best pitchers in the MLB.
So, is Arrieta the best pitcher in all of baseball? When it comes down to it, Kershaw’s consistency over time and greatness over the past five and a half seasons is more worthy of being named the best pitcher in all of baseball rather than two and a half seasons of dominance. Arrieta is indeed one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, but it is far too early to call him the best ahead of the greatness that is Clayton Kershaw.
Main Photo
