Philadelphia Phillies to sign Jake Arrieta

According to numerous reports (including Connor Bryne of MLB Trade Rumors) the Phillies agreed to terms with Jake Arrieta last night on a multi-year deal.

My suggestion that the Brewers sign Jake Arrieta for a $30 mil one year deal with a player option for 2019 turns out to have been wholly inadequate. The Phillies are signing him to a three-year deal for $30 mil in 2018, $25 mil in 2019, and $20 mil in 20. Plus, Jake can opt out of the deal after 2019. If Arrieta does well, the Phillies have an option to void Arrieta’s opt-out by giving him a two year extension at $20 mil per, with incentives that can take those seasons to $25 mil to $30 mil.

The Brewers weren’t going to go there, as David Stearns has made clear recently. Frankly this is a deal that gives me great appreciation for Scott Boras. He is one heck of an agent. He zeroed in on the team that is able to spend lots of money but currently has a low payroll, and feels that they will be ready to contend soon. That contending thing may or may not happen. But the Phillies can afford to take this risk. The Brewers could have afforded my idea, but this deal might have hamstrung their chances.

So do the Brewers give Alex Cobb a Lance Lynn-type deal, or will we be relegated to hoping that Wade Miley has really found something since he joined the Derek Johnson School of Reclamation, or that Brandon Woodruff will advance more quickly than Jimmy Nelson? Will Jimmy Nelson make a quick recovery and be back on the mound and effective? We can hope that Jhoulys Chacin will be as good as last year, that Chase Anderson won’t regress, and that Zach Davies will start the season as well as he finishes it. Will Brent Suter maintain his voodoo magic and continue to befuddle major league hitters?

The answers to these and other as yet unknown questions will be revealed as the 2018 Brewers baseball season, coming soon to a baseball stadium near you - either in person or on TV.