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Even with Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta is true Chicago Cubs’ ace
By Jake Misener
This offseason, the biggest move the Chicago Cubs’ front office duo of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer made was the signing of free agent left-hander Jon Lester. In the excitement surrounding Lester, another dominant arm in the Chicago rotation has inexplicably fallen to the wayside in right-hander Jake Arrieta, who broke out in a big way last season for the club.
The former Baltimore Orioles prospect had never posted a full-season earned run average below 4.66 heading into 2014, but under the tutelage of Chicago pitching coach Chris Bosio, Arrieta blossomed into one of the most dominant starting pitchers not only on the staff – but in the entire league.
Making a career-high 25 starts, the right-hander posted double-digit wins for the first time in his big league career, also tossing a career-high 156 2/3 innings in the process.
He was a major part of the Cubs’ second-half success – especially after the midseason trade that sent 40 percent of the Chicago rotation to Oakland in the form of Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel.
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In his 25 starts, Chicago posted a .600 winning percentage – meaning the club won 15 of his outings last year. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that of those two dozen-plus starts, Arrieta recorded quality starts in 18 of them.
Penciled in behind Lester as the Cubs’ number two man heading into 2015, Arrieta opened his season in a big way in Wednesday’s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, tossing seven shutout innings en route to Chicago’s first win of the season.
With the victory, the right-hander lowered his earned run average to an impressive 0.74 mark in 36 1/3 innings against the Cardinals – not to mention his 42 punchouts that have come against the division rival Redbirds, as well.
While it’s just the second game of the season, the fact that Arrieta has been so consistently good against a very high quality St. Louis club speaks volumes to the role he should play in the Cubs’ future.
The attention may be focused firmly on Lester, which makes sense given the fact that he’s due $155 million over the life of his contract. That being said, if I had to put my money on a single Chicago pitcher making a case for the All-Star team in 2015, my no-doubt choice is Jake Arrieta.