Jake Arrieta signs with Padres

Former Cubs righthander Jake Arrieta is about to have a new baseball home:

I don’t think I have to tell you how weird this is. Why? Because in the offseason of 2017-18, there was much discussion over whether the Cubs should re-sign Arrieta, or move on and sign Yu Darvish. Of course, you know what happened, the Cubs signed Darvish and he struggled at first, missed most of 2018 with injuries, then had a great run from mid-2019 through 2020 with the Cubs before being traded to San Diego this past offseason.

Meanwhile, Arrieta signed with the Phillies and had three mediocre injury-filled seasons before rejoining the Cubs this year. He had a great April but since then... not so much. I covered all of that in this article of appreciation for Arrieta’s tenure with the Cubs published on Saturday.

So now Arrieta will fill in for Darvish. How odd. The Cubs will get a small break on the money owed to Arrieta, as the Padres will be on the hook for about one-quarter of the minimum salary (there’s about a quarter of this year remaining), or about $142,000.

Jake wasn’t good with the Cubs, but obviously the Padres think they can get some decent innings from him. As always, we await developments.