Britton: Former coach caused Arrieta's struggles with O's

Jake Arrieta continues to be one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball after throwing his second no-hitter in the past two seasons Thursday.

The Baltimore Orioles could have been the benefactors of his talent instead of the Chicago Cubs if they just let him do his thing, according to former teammate Zach Britton.

"They took away the individual approach to everything," Britton explained to Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan of the Orioles philosophy under former pitching coach Rick Adair. "Things we did extremely well in the minor leagues to get to the big leagues - we were told that just doesn’t work here. And you’re like, ‘That’s kind of weird, right?’ You don’t just reinvent yourself in the big leagues. That was the struggle. And the struggle, as we got older, was trying to get back to what made us what we were before."

Britton equates Arrieta's struggles, as well as those of Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, and himself early in their careers, to Adair's contrasting approach to that of the players, which Passan writes was exacerbated when the pitching coach took Arrieta's cut fastball away during his time with the club.

Arrieta now uses the pitch to dominate hitters along with a nasty sinker, slider combination. Batters are only hitting Arrieta's cutter at a .143 clip this season.

And while Britton is presumably happy for his former teammate's success, he believes things could have been different if Arrieta was still with the organization.

“With Dave (Wallace) and Dom (Chiti), if Jake had the opportunity to work with them, I don’t see why he wouldn’t have done here what he’s done there,” Britton said. “The stuff was the guy who could throw two no-hitters. That didn’t just come out of nowhere."

After winning the NL Cy Young last season with a 20-6 mark and a 1.77 ERA across 229 innings, Arrieta is pitching well again this season, going a perfect 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA, while allowing just 4.4 hits per nine innings.