When Chicago Cubs fans point to reasons why they aren't entirely sure Jake Arrieta should command the kind of contract he's looking for, they can point to outings like his first spring training start of the season. While the former Cy Young award winner can be dominant at times, at others he can look entirely human. Those same skeptical Cubs fans will point to the fact that in the last 18 months, he's looking human more often than he's looked super human.
It's why there is a growing contingent of people who think perhaps Chicago should take it's chances allowing Jake to show he deserved that contract on another team.
Ugly outing
Jake Arrieta might have just been shaking off the rust, considering Monday afternoon was indeed his first start of the spring for the Chicago Cubs. On the other hand, it was an especially bad outing for a player who has recently been talked about as wanting one of the biggest baseball contracts in history. The former Cubs ace has been relegated to being the team's third best starter in just a matter of years thanks to Jon Lester's continued dominance and the rise of Kyle Hendricks.
Now it appears he's living up to that demotion as he got hit often and got hit hard in his first start in this young pre-season. Over the course of two innings, Arrieta allowed five hits and two earned runs for the Chicago Cubs.If there was a spot of good news, it was that the Chicago hurler didn't want anybody. That positivity was dashed by the fact that he did allow a long homerun.
Not the only bad outing
To be fair to Jake Arrieta, there were quite a few Cubs who had bad games on Monday. There are even more who are having bad springs so far. Eddie Butler got the win despite allowing two hits, two walks and two runs in two innings, raising his ERA to 6.75. The Cubs' new leadoff man, Kyle Schwarber finally showed some life this spring by going 1-3 and raising his average to .154.
The difference for Chicago between Schwarber, Butler and Arrieta is that the other two Cubs are not looking to either command a massive payday at the end of the year, or walk away. For Arrieta, he's going to need to put together sharper outings or expect to be cut loose by the Chicago Cubs.