The Cubs have placed right-handed pitcher Jake Arrieta on unconditional release wavers, the team announced on Thursday.
Arrieta, 35, has struggled this season with a 6.88 ERA and 5–11 record. In Chicago's 10–0 loss at home to the Brewers, Arrieta allowed eight hits against 11 hitters in the first inning.
In Arrieta's first stint with the Cubs from 2013 to 2017, he helped them snap their 108-year championship drought to win the 2016 World Series. Arrieta also won the National League Cy Young Award in 2015.
Arrieta has a career 3.93 ERA and 1,424 strikeouts in more than 1,600 innings pitched.
Following the Cubs loss to the Dodgers in the 2017 NLCS, Arrieta declined a $17.4 million qualifying offer to become a free agent. He later signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the Phillies.
After his three-year tenure with the Phillies, one in which he faced a season-ending surgery to remove a bone spur in his right elbow in 2019 and a shortened 2020 season, Arrieta agreed to a one year, $6 million deal to return to Chicago in February.
