Jake Arrieta to Make Phillies Debut Today vs Marlins

The Phillies have optioned Jake Thompson to triple A to make room for Jake Arrieta, who will make his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies in the final game of their three-game series against the Miami Marlins this afternoon.

Arrieta signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the Phillies back on March 12. In 30 starts for the Cubs last year, the veteran right-hander went 14-10 with a 3.53 ERA in 168 1/3 innings.

Arrieta has been excellent against the Marlins in four career starts, going 26 innings and posting a 1.38 ERA, allowing 16 hits with four walks and 26 strikeouts. He has a 3-0 recorded against Miami in his career.

So what if manager Gabe Kapler comes to the mound to pull Arrieta today if he is dominating the Marlins like he has throughout his career, Arrieta told reporters that he will certainly plead his case to remain in the game.

“Yeah, absolutely. If it’s done smartly, for sure. We pitch one out of every five days so if there’s an extra 20 pitches in there that we can give our team then we want to do that. So, yeah, I’m always trying to plead my base.”

He discussed also went more in depth about Kapler's early season quick hooks to the bullpen:

“I think a lot of that, you’ve got to use the eye test. If a guy is rolling then you may extend him a little bit longer and if you have high-stress innings, one or multiple, then you kind of reevaluate and go from there. But I think you’ve got to watch the game and see how it unfolds and if you’re cruising then you would obviously like to continue to stay out there, but it’s tough to plead your case if you’re struggling to stay in the game. So it just depends on how the game unfolds and how things progress, but if I’m rolling I intend to be out there for quite a while.”

Arrieta's Phillies debut comes with Philadelphia going for a sweep today after a 20-1 victory last night.