Chicago Cubs Rumors: Team’s top free agent target should be Jake Arrieta

Chicago Cubs Rumors: Arrieta proving his mettle of-late

Since the aforementioned May 14 low-point, Arrieta failed to pitch at least six innings just five times – and two of those were 5 2/3 inning efforts. After the calendar flipped to July, he has not allowed more than three earned runs in a start.

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To be blunt, he’s been good.

In the month of July, Arrieta posted a 2.25 ERA in five starts. Entering play on Tuesday, the right-hander performed even better, with a 1.44 earned run average in five August outings. In mid-May, he was a fringe candidate for the postseason starting rotation. Now, he’s a lock.

Jon Lester is working his way back from injury. Jose Quintana hasn’t been what many expected. Kyle Hendricks and Mike Montgomery are probably the two strongest starting pitchers in the rotation right now, along with Arrieta.

Now, he won’t go winning any Cy Young Awards this time around, but he may be even more important to the Cubs in 2017 than two years ago.