Chicago Cubs: Jake Arrieta was an embarrassment in 2021

The Chicago Cubs have made a lot of embarrassing decisions over the last year or so. Those bad calls have led to the dismantling of a team that was once thought of as a dynasty in the making. One of the bad decisions that they made was resigning Jake Arrieta after he had been gone for a few years pitching for another team. He has, to put it kindly, been an embarrassment to their organization in more ways than once. Well, as of Thursday, he is officially released.

It all started when they let him go a few years ago. They weren’t very loyal to him as they signed Yu Darvish and let Arrieta walk. That turned out to be a good decision in the end but it took about a year for people to realize it. However, they decided to trade Darvish to the San Diego Padres after the one elite year he had with the Cubs just to go out and bring Arrieta back.

Make no mistake about one thing. Jake Arrieta was so great for the Chicago Cubs in 2015 and 2016. For about ten months, you can argue he was right there for the title of the best pitcher in baseball. He won a Cy Young and a World Series title with the Cubs in those years. Unfortunately, things have slowly fallen for him since.

In 2021, he went 5-11 with a 6.88 ERA. He started off okay but really started to fall off a cliff in about mid-May. His numbers really are embarrassing but only because the Cubs actually thought they would be able to compete this year by bringing him back. It was destined to fail from the very beginning. It is unclear if his career will be over or not but you never truly know.

Jake Arrieta’s second stint with the Chicago Cubs was not very good in any way.

Arrieta has really started to fall from grace with the fans too. He made a comment to a reporter who made the choice to wear a mask during the press conference following his horrible game on Wednesday night.

They lost 10-0 but he was more concerned about making that weird comment to someone who was just trying to be safe. We also all know his deal with keeping the Cubs from getting to the COVID-19 vaccination threshold. Honestly, they are better off without this guy both on and off the field. Hopefully, if he does end up somewhere else, he embarrasses them less than he embarrassed the Cubs in 2021.