Jake Arrieta, Cubs Contract Extension Candidate

I have long thought, and wrote about it last week, that Jake Arrieta was going to be moving on from the Cubs in free agency after 2017, for various reasons.

Now, it seems that the Cubs, Arrieta and Jake’s agent Scott Boras will make one more effort to get him signed long-term:

Now, this could simply mean that Boras will ask again for the long-term, six- or seven-year deal that Jake was rumored to want last offseason. Or, perhaps, with Jake now one year older and having had a 2016 that wasn’t quite up to his 2015 standard (not that anyone could really meet that standard!), he’d be willing to take fewer years if the money is right.

MLB Trade Rumors projects Jake to get approximately $16.8 million in arbitration for 2017. He made $10.7 million in 2016. Perhaps an arb-type salary for 2017 could be folded into some sort of larger deal. (Incidentally, that link also contains MLBTR projections for the three other Cubs who are arb-eligible for 2017.)

So what say you? Extend him? Or take one more year and say farewell?