Jake Arrieta declined the Cubs qualifying offer and is now officially a free agent. Arrieta (31) will be testing the market this winter as he is expected to get paid big bucks this offseason. The 2015 Cy Young winner and 2016 World Series Champion's value is very high and can potentially make well over $100 million over four-plus years.
Reports surfaced this morning from Jon Morosi that the Milwaukee Brewers are interested in Arrieta.
The Brewers are very familiar with Arrieta's abilities seeing as he pitched in their division the past four and a half seasons. Last year the Brewers surprised many and competed in the NL Central race until the last few weeks of September, and their starting pitching rotation was a big factor in last season's success.
Arrieta's resume
Jake Arrieta went from Baltimore to Chicago in 2013 in a trade. He had a rough go with the Orioles, but Chicago helped fix his command problems and soon he became a dominant force. 2015 saw his historical run to the NL Cy Young award when he went 22-6, with a 1.77 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 236 strikeouts and only 48 walks in 229.0 innings.
In 2016 he helped his team win a World Series in addition to being named an All-Star. He sported a 2.38 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in two World Series starts.
Last year was a roller coaster for him. While he pitched much better in the second half, he was not near his 2014-2016 dominance. He finished with a 3.53 ERA, which is still pretty good, but his Fielding Independent Pitching (adjusted ERA) rose to 4.16 as he gave up 23 home runs and sported a 1.218 WHIP in 168.1 innings. The command simply was not as good, but he still was striking guys out at a good rate (8.7 per nine innings).
Fit with the Crew?
There are some concerns about giving Jake Arrieta a big contract. Like mentioned he was inconsistent last year and is no spring chicken.
He is not terribly old, but the concerns about power-pitchers always rise after they hit the 30 mark. Whoever signs Arrieta will have to put their risk worries aside and hope that shelling out a ton of money to him will be worth it with the overall success he had in Chicago.
The Brewers are a small market team and not one that can play with house money like the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees or Red Sox have been known to do. If the Brewers were to make a move, there is no way agent Scott Boras is going to sell him short. Signing Arrieta would certainly improve their rotation, especially considering the Jimmy Nelson injury hurts the Brewers rotation going into next year.
Right now it seems to be just interest from the Brewers and that is all. It would be hard to see them put so much of their payroll into a pitcher over 30.