Cy Young winners Jake Arrieta, Dallas Keuchel a testament to patience
Two years ago, Jake Arrieta and Dallas Keuchel combined for an 11-14 record and a 5.03 ERA, the former spending time in the minors, the latter just another struggling starter on a terrible Houston Astros rotation.
Today they’re Cy Young Award winners, and testaments to the notion that every pitcher matures at his own pace.
Arrieta and Keuchel did not burst onto the scene like Matt Harvey or Jose Fernandez. Each toiled for at least four years in the minors and found success at the big-league level elusive early on, especially Arrieta, a breakout star with the Chicago Cubs this season at 29.
Those travails made it all the sweeter Wednesday when Arrieta edged Zack Greinke of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League Cy Young Award, and Keuchel outpointed David Price of the Toronto Blue Jays for the top pitching prize in the American League.
“Everything I’ve been through makes it even more special,’’ Arrieta said. “The grinding through Triple-A, being up and down, and second-guessing myself, wondering if I’m even capable of continuing to play this game at this level.’’
Arrieta was a highly regarded prospect with the Baltimore Orioles who never panned out with them until his career took a drastic turn for the better when he was traded to the Cubs in July 2013. He started living up to his promise the following season, when he went 10-5 with a 2.53 ERA, and broke through as one of the majors’ top pitchers this year, relying on a slider-cutter combination that consistently baffled hitters.
Arrieta pitched well from the beginning of the season on the way to a 22-6 record with a 1.77 ERA, but his true brilliance did not manifest itself until the second half, when he put together a run for the ages. After the All-Star Game – to which he wasn’t invited – Arrieta registered an ERA of 0.75, the lowest ever for a full-time starter in the second half.
In his last 12 starts beginning with his Aug. 4 outing, Arrieta went 11-0 with a 0.41 ERA, allowing a mere four earned runs in 88 1/3 innings and holding opposing hitters to a minuscule .354 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. That stretch included an Aug. 30 no-hitter against the Dodgers.
“This award, it’s been a lot of hard word, a long time coming, a lot of adjusting, trying to figure this game out, and still learning,’’ Arrieta said.
Greinke had a slight advantage over Arrieta in most meaningful statistical categories but came up just short of his second Cy Young. By logging a 1.66 ERA, Greinke finished first in that department in the big leagues for the second time in his career. Greinke, who went 19-3, also led the majors with an .864 winning percentage, compared to Arrieta’s .786 mark.
But in a week that has seen the 97-win Cubs claim all three major awards given out in the NL so far – third baseman Kris Bryant was named rookie of the year and Joe Maddon earned his third Manager of the Year recognition – Arrieta’s late exploits and success against quality competition got him over the top.
He went 12-3 with a 1.48 ERA against clubs that finished with at least a breakeven record, including a 5-2 mark against the AL Central champ St. Louis Cardinals and the second-place Pittsburgh Pirates.
“This was probably the most memorable season of my career,’’ said Arrieta, who arrived in Chicago with a career 5.46 ERA. “Individually I was able to do some great things, but winning 97 games as a team and winning the first playoff game in the organization in a number of years was really special to all of us.’’
Keuchel’s trajectory did not contain as many ups and downs as that of Arrieta, but he endured considerable personal and team failure in his first two seasons.
Keuchel was Houston’s seventh-round pick in the 2009 draft and reached the majors in 2012, when the Astros were in the middle of a three-year stretch in which they lost at least 106 every season. Keuchel had a 9-18 mark his first two years, then began to turn his fortunes around in 2014, when he went 12-9 with a 2.93 ERA and pitched 200 innings for the first time.
“There’s a lot more confidence and with that comes a better understanding of what I can do,’’ Keuchel said of his improvement this season. “I’ve always been an advocate of trying to get myself better and better, to the point of being able to throw any pitch at any point in any location. This year was the first time I was able to throw the majority of the pitches to where I wanted.’’
The crafty Keuchel, 27, led the league in three key categories – wins, innings pitched and WHIP (walks plus hits per inning) – on the way to finishing 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA. He won fairly comfortably over Price, who edged him out for the ERA title with a 2.45 mark while going a combined 18-5 between the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays.
Besides drawing the starting assignment in his first All-Star Game appearance, Keuchel became the undisputed staff ace of an Astros team that surprised observers by leading earning a wild-card spot in the playoffs. He was a workhorse who started 33 games, pitched 232 innings and also faced the most batters in the league (911).
Keuchel set a record by going 15-0 at home, an impressive achievement considering the short porch in left field at Minute Maid Park, a target for right-handed hitters against lefties. That had little impact on Keuchel, who allowed only four homers and had a 1.46 ERA at home. Keuchel also did well in the lesser-known stats, finishing first in the league in on-base-plus-slugging percentage allowed (.575) and second in batting average against (.217).
“It got to the point where the confidence was at an all-time high,’’ he said, “and that was mainly the key.’’