Chicago Cubs: Ranking Jake Arrieta’s most memorable home runs

In a dreadful offseason filled with departures of fan favorites, and trade rumors running rampant around other key names, the Chicago Cubs finally gave us something to get excited about, signing beloved starter Jake Arrieta to a one-year, $6 million deal.

It was a move that may allow Arrieta to retire with the team with whom he won the 2015 NL Cy Young award and became a massive piece of the most  important team in franchise history.

Arrieta is, of course, most known for his pitching in Chicago. The righty was acquired in a famously lopsided trade from Baltimore along with fellow fan favorite Pedro Strop, in exchange for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger. In Arrieta’s four full seasons afterwards, he started 119 games, had a 2.67 ERA, 1.028 WHIP, 0.6 HR/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 9.1 K/9. You’d be hard pressed to find a better four-year stretch from a Cubs starter.

Another thing about Arrieta that drew people to him, was how formidable he was with the bat. 2016 in particular was unbelievable in terms of pitchers hitting as he slashed .262/.304/.415 with a .719 OPS. Arrieta also hit six home runs in his Cubs career and three of them, in particular, stand out.

Cubs: Let’s go back to 2015. You never forget your first.

Arrieta’s first career home run was representative of the Cubs’ successes that were to come in the next few years. It was the middle of the summer during the indescribably fun 2015 season and the young upstart team was taking the league by storm.

Everything about that season just felt magical and the breakout Arrieta taking Sox lefty Jose Quintana (Who was in the midst of a 3.36 season) felt like an exclamation point on the 2015 campaign and a sign of what was to come.

Cubs fans lost it when Jake Arrieta took Madison Bumgarner deep

He’ll never get a bigger hit in his life. Arrieta’s NLDS home run off postseason icon Madison Bumgarner was proof that there was magic in that 2016 run.

Arrieta had ground out a long at-bat against Bumgarner which is really all you can hope from a pitcher taking an AB, but everyone’s patience was rewarded with what was for me personally, the moment that convinced me the Cubs were going to win the World Series.

Chicago may not have won that game, but they won Game 4 with even more postseason magic to advance to the NLCS where another unlikely hero would hit a massive home run in Game 1, and the rest is history.

In an offseason that’s been a grim look to the future for Cubs fans, it’s nice to have a little piece of the past added to the equation. Arrieta may not be the same pitcher he once was, or the same hitter for that matter, but the Cubs weren’t looking all that likely to compete  regardless.

So why not have Arrieta around to maybe retire a Cub? Hopefully the ending is as good as the rest of the story.