Cubs release struggling Jake Arrieta: Pitcher won Cy Young, World Series in first tour with Chicago

Jake Arrieta’s second stint with the Chicago Cubs was as ignominious as his first go-round was glorious.

The 2015 Cy Young Award winner and 2016 World Series champion was released by the Cubs on Thursday morning, hours after his worst start in a season full of them.

It also came hours after Arrieta chided a reporter on a postgame video news conference for wearing a facemask in the Wrigley Field press box.

“I’d love you to take your mask off. I don’t think anybody’s around you,” Arrieta said in response to a question about mentoring young pitchers.

Odd and inappropriate as that request might have been, his mound performance was even worse.

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Arrieta gave up eight hits and seven first-inning runs in an eventual 8-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. The effort raised his ERA to 6.88 and his hits allowed per nine innings to 11.8. Cubs manager David Ross, who caught one of Arrieta’s no-hitters for the Cubs, expressed hope before the game that the club could give Arrieta leeway to work out his woes.

“Me personally?” Ross asked. “Aside from being the manager, I would definitely say, yeah, I would like to give him as much runway as possible. I think this game is harsh, at times, too, right? There are some hard realities in this game that don’t always allow that.”

It was far different the first time around.

After struggling with the Baltimore Orioles, Arrieta’s career was invigorated by a 2013 trade to the Cubs. He received Cy Young consideration a year later and by 2015 was the game’s most dominant pitcher, winning 22 games, tossing a major league-high four complete games and striking out 236 batters. He capped his Cy Young season with a stirring conquest of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL wild-card game.

A year later, he was an All-Star and World Series champion, pitching the Cubs back into the Fall Classic with a shutout effort in Game 2 at Cleveland. He also started and won Game 6, paving the way for the Cubs to claim their first championship since 1908 a night later.

Arrieta eventually departed for a three-year, $75 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, but was dogged by injuries and a less dominant repertoire. The Cubs re-signed him to a one-year, $6 million deal before this season, but Arrieta was one of the few vetrans left standing after an 11-game losing streak spanning June and July sunk their season.

Arrieta started three of those games, this time part of the demise rather than the cure.

“I got nothing for you, man,” Arrieta said after Wednesday’s effort. “I’m doing the best I can. And that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

A few hours later, he was gone.