(670 The Score) Former Cubs ace Jake Arrieta has all but officially retired.
“I haven’t signed the papers, but I’m done,” Arrieta said on the Pardon My Take podcast in an episode that was released Monday. “It’s time for me to step away from the game. At some point, the uniform goes to somebody else, and it’s just my time, really.”
Arrieta, 36, has gone unsigned after a rough 2021 season in which he was released by the Cubs and then struggled mightily for the Padres too. He had a combined 7.39 ERA in 24 starts for those two clubs last season.
In recent seasons, Arrieta knew the end of his career was nearing.
“It got to a point where I just couldn’t feel my arm in space at release,” Arrieta said on Pardon My Take. “It was most dramatic on my curveball and my changeup. I was hitting guys with changeups. Those were two pitches where I could throw them wherever I wanted. Velocity was not the issue. I was still 91to 94. I could not physically feel where my arm was at release.
“Trying to keep it going, trying to provide for the organization and for a (Cubs) fan base and for my teammates and doing what I did in Chicago before, it sucked to be in that position, to go from warming up before games and hearing fans in the stands going nuts and kind of knowing I was going to dominate and then last years, it’s like, ‘Oh, hopefully he gets to the third inning.’ It sucked. It did suck, but it is what it is. There’s no script you can look at and say, ‘This is how it’s going to play itself out.’ It happened that way unfortunately, but you know, we’re here now. It’s all good.”
A team in the Mexican League reached out to gauge Arrieta’s interest in joining it in the offseason, he said, but he declined.
“I’m not going to Mexico unless I’m drinking piña coladas,” Arrieta said.
Arrieta will leave the game with a legacy that includes one of the best single seasons in MLB history and as a figure who was a cornerstone of the Cubs’ revival and championship season in 2016. Arrieta pitched for the Cubs from 2013-’17 and then again in 2021, posting a 3.14 ERA in his Chicago tenure.
He won the National League Cy Young award in 2015 with a dominant season in which he went 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA. He threw two no-hitters in a Cubs uniform and earned five wins for them in the playoffs. Among those postseason wins was Arrieta throwing a gem to lead the Cubs to a win against the Pirates in the NL wild-card game in 2015, which marked their arrival on the scene in the eyes of many.
“I don’t regret anything,” Arrieta said. “Chicago is my city. It always will be.”