Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta has not been up to his usual standard this season, and a nagging thumb issue may have a lot to do with it.
Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio divulged Friday that Arrieta has been deal with open, tender skin around his right pitching thumb that has hindered him for a while now.
“It goes all the way back to spring training,” Bosio said Friday, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN. “It was just a lingering thing that never went away, and it’s progressively gotten worse.”
Arrieta has battled through the ailment, though Bosio wasn’t sure if his velocity drop is a side effect of the issue or something unrelated. Bosio is sure, however, that Arrieta intends to pitch through the problem as long as he is able.
“Not the normal flight on his pitches,” Bosio admitted. “It shows. He wants to power through it. It’s been an issue. He won’t make excuses.”
Arrieta’s walk and strikeout rates don’t show any issue, but he has a 4.68 ERA through 13 starts. It’s not what he would have wanted to deal with in a contract year, as he hopes to get paid at season’s end.
