The Cubs and Jake Arrieta will reunite in 2021

Jake Arrieta had one of the greatest seasons in modern baseball history for the Cubs in 2015. He threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers that year, then another one vs. the Reds in 2016.

After 2017, Jake departed for the Phillies.

Now, he might be back in the Cubs rotation in 2021:

We don’t have any more information than this at the present time. If this happens, and when the Jake Marisnick signing is made official, two players would have to be removed from the 40-man roster.

I wrote that the Cubs should sign Arrieta here a month ago. In that article, I wrote:

But after a rather rough start to his abbreviated 2020 season, his three September starts were actually... not too bad. He posted a 3.00 ERA and 1.444 WHIP in three starts, averaging six innings per start (18 innings total), with six walks and 14 strikeouts. He was shut down after a good outing against the Mets September 15, but not for arm trouble — he had a hamstring injury, a Grade 1 (the least severe type).

I am well aware that Jake’s not the pitcher he was with the Cubs in 2015 and 2016, or even the 2017 model who posted a 3.53 ERA and 1.218 WHIP in 30 starts for the Cubs that year.

By Spring Training — whenever that happens — he should be healthy and I’d think he could give the Cubs a year similar to his 2017 season, or the 2018 season he had in Philadelphia. He posted 1.9 bWAR in 2017 and 2.8 in 2018 — he’d be quite useful for the Cubs at that level of performance, not to mention the fact that his experience could be good for mentoring younger pitchers in the Cubs organization.

I’ll stand by that (obviously, Spring Training IS happening, and soon). This would be a good signing, as well as being popular with the fanbase. Obviously they shouldn’t sign him because it’d be popular.

But I think Jake can help the rotation. This is a good signing.