Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta won the Cy Young award last season, which is a bit crazy, given the fact that he had nearly given up on baseball just before that time.
Arrieta, who was drafted by the Orioles in 2010, struggled with some command issues early in his career, and after finishing 2011 with a 5.34 ERA, his future looked bleak. Just two years later, after being demoted by the Orioles, he mulled quitting baseball altogether, which he admitted in an interview with Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago.
“We were at a point where I had other things that I could segue into and establish a career elsewhere,” Arrieta said. “Not that I wanted that to happen, but I didn’t want to continue to go through the things we were going through and moving from place to place in the minor leagues at 25, 26 years old.
“Baseball is something that I’ve loved to do since I was a little kid, but it’s not everything. I had to reevaluate some things. I knew I could always pitch this way, but there were times where it seemed like maybe I wasn’t going to get to that point.”
But he stuck with it, and shortly after, was traded to the Cubs, which helped turn his career around. Maybe the Cubs’ pitching coaches are much better at developing players than the Orioles’ were, or maybe hitting rock bottom flipped a switch for him.
Whatever the reason, Arrieta is now the ace on the best team in baseball, and things are going pretty well right now. It’s crazy to hear about where he was at just three years ago.
Stick with it when the going gets tough, kids!