Ex-Cy Young winner announces his retirement

Jake Arrieta pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies during a game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on August 25, 2020. Photo Credit: All-Pro Reels Photography via CC BY-SA 2.0

A former Cy Young Award winner has decided to call it a career.

Jake Arrieta was a guest on Monday’s episode of Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast. In his interview, Arrieta told hosts Big Cat and PFT Commenter that he is done pitching.

Big Cat asked Arrieta if he wanted to announce his retirement, and the pitcher did so informally.

“I haven’t signed the papers, man, but I’m done,” Arrieta told the hosts. “It’s time for me to step away from the game. At some point, the uniform goes to somebody else. It’s just my time, really. … Yeah, man, I’m done.”

Arrieta played 12 seasons in MLB from 2010-2021. The former 5th-round pick from TCU began his career with mediocre results for the Baltimore Orioles. He was acquired by the Chicago Cubs in a 2013 trade, and that’s when things took off.

Arrieta immediately saw success with the Cubs and put together 4.5 excellent seasons for the team. The highlight was in 2015, when he went 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA. He led the league in wins, complete games (4) and shutouts (3) while claiming the Cy Young Award. He was also an All-Star in 2016, the same year he helped the Cubs end their World Series drought.

Arrieta eventually signed with the Phillies in 2018 but had three lackluster seasons with them. Last year he went 5-14 with a 7.39 ERA over stints with the Cubs and Padres. The poor season signaled to Arrieta that he was done.

The 36-year-old told PMT that a team in Mexico wanted him, but he did not have interest in pitching for them.

Arrieta said in the interview that he started to realize a few years ago that he was losing his top skills.

“I came to this realization around the ’19 season, towards the end of the ’19 season, ‘Man, my body feels amazing, but the ‘ole whip, it just doesn’t rotate the way it used to.’ Whether I like it or not, that’s just where things were going. It got to a point where I just couldn’t feel my arm in space at release. It was most dramatic on my curveball and my changeup. I was hitting guys with changeups and those were two pitches where I can throw wherever I wanted. … I could not physically feel where my arm was at at release.”

Arrieta leaves basebaall with quite a career. He ascended to the levels of winning a Cy Young and World Series. He finished top-9 in NL Cy Young voting three times, and he made one All-Star team. Cubs fans will always have great appreciation for him.