With Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner, and Noah Syndergaard all unavailable for Tuesday's All-Star Game, National League manager Terry Collins was already running low on elite starters. Unfortunately, for Collins and fans of good pitching, it appears another ace is bowing out of the game.
Cubs workhorse Jake Arrieta announced on Monday that he's leaning toward sitting out, according to Jesse Rogers. Here's Arrieta's explanation:
"We've scuffled the past couple weeks," Arrieta said Monday afternoon. "The break is coming at a really good time."
Arrieta's agent, Scott Boras, later confirmed that his client is on the fence about pitching in the Midsummer Classic.
Arrieta has struggled his last few times out -- he's allowed more than a hit per inning his last four times out, and has given up 16 earned runs in 21 innings -- but you feel like there has to be a better way to approach this whole mess. Arrieta's last start was on Friday, which gave him more than enough time to inform the league of his intentions and, in turn, for them to find a replacement.
Granted, the league probably doesn't want every pitcher with a seemingly plausible excuse having the power to dip -- otherwise the game will lose more and more of its elite talents -- but it's not like this situation, where Arrieta's spot will go to waste, is much better.
