Philadelphia Phillies: Jake Arrieta to make Phillies debut Sunday
After an offseason where he struggled to find a home team for 2018, Jake Arrieta gears up for his first start with his new team — the Philadelphia Phillies.
Most of the news surrounding the early 2018 Philadelphia Phillies season hasn’t been good. Their new manager Gabe Kapler was already so disliked after their first five games that he was booed at his debut home opener in Philadelphia. But despite the drama and their slow start, Phillies’ fans will finally get to see their newest asset pitch on Sunday.
Jake Arrieta’s offseason nearly ended as a cautionary plan to players overvaluing themselves—at least, it looked it for much of the winter. Countless teams were attached to Arrieta, but he just couldn’t find a fit. Until Philadelphia called. The 3-year, $75 million deal the two parties agreed to may look even better for the team in context pretty soon.
The Philadelphia Phillies patience paid off
Patience was the theme of this past offseason. For some, patience seemed to pay off. Others were burned by not acting fast enough. It might be that Philadelphia is an example of the former, while Arrieta is an example of the latter.
The Phillies didn’t get Arrieta because they were the highest bidder. He apparently received an offer from his former team the Chicago Cubs. The reported offer was believed to be similar to the 5-year, $126 million contract the Cubs ended up relegating to Yu Darvish.
Arrieta’s lasting hope that he’d get something closer to the $200 million he may have hoped for early benefited the Phillies. Baseball was approaching and it was going to start without Arrieta, and the Phillies landed him just in time for a reduced price.
Concerns about Arrieta’s 2017 campaign
Arrieta’s decreased velocity stained most of his 2017 season as well as his free agency. But by the end of the season, it was nearly a non-issue for him. His 3.53 ERA was comfortably under four. His K/9 actually increased 0.04 points from 2016. He walked fewer batters on average in 2017 too. Fangraphs’ ZiPS projections expect Arrieta to maintain a 3.67 ERA in 2018.
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And it’s not only Arrieta’s game-to-game numbers that the Phillies thought were worth $75 million. Arrieta also eats innings (if Gabe Kapler lets him). Arrieta hasn’t thrown fewer than 150 innings in a season since 2013; a stretch during which Arrieta went 64-29 and won a Cy Young award. He can eat innings.
The future is bright for Arrieta
As it stands, it’s easy to break Arrieta’s career into two sections: the years with the Baltimore Orioles and the years with the Chicago Cubs. He was a completely different pitcher for each organization.
But now Arrieta is on the Phillies. He’s in new territory and he has the opportunity to define his Phillies’ years on his own terms.
Will he again become a new pitcher? Will he return to the version of himself that won the National League Cy Young Award just a couple years ago? We’ll have a better idea of what Arrieta is bringing to 2018 after he faces the Marlins on Sunday at 1:35 E.T.
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The Phillies—and baseball—will watch Arrieta closely as he begins the latest chapter of his career.