Just looking at all of the bad stats, and the one that sticks out the most is opponents hitting .411 against him. I guess it is a good thing that the Orioles didn't trade for him :arrieta:
In all seriousness, whats going on with him?
Well he's been losing velocity for the last few years, so he's slowly morphed into a "pitch to contact" guy ... Last year he learned a new 2-seam grip from Jonny Venters, and it acted more like a sinker. That caused some of the dip in velo. It also temporarily gave him additional downward movement and a higher GB rate, so it kept his ERA way down. This year however he's leaving everything up, and he has absolutely no life or movement on any of his offerings. I saw him opening weekend vs. the Mets, with great seats on the 3B line, and I couldn't figure out if he was trying to throw a fastball, curve or change on any given pitch. There is just no speed difference to keep the batters honest anymore, it's all mid 80s with soft spin, and the breaking stuff has lost its bite. The end result is a lot of belt-high batting practice fastballs.
The injuries haven't helped, especially the knee issue, because it's the one he lands with. It's possible his mechanics are shot due to compensating for the knee, and it's caused his command to be all over the place.
I hope he can find the command of the lower half of the zone again, because the velo is probably gone for good. He needs to reinvent himself as a Buerhle/Hudson type sinkerballer to get his career back on track, because he will never strike out more than a handful of guys per 9 with his current repertoire.
For what it's worth, he sounded receptive to the demotion and he admits he is not the same guy he used to be. And how could he not? The results speak for themselves, he's been horrible. He strikes me as a guy who will work his ass off to get better, but what worries me is that even at his "best" his ceiling is just not that high anymore. The sub-3 ERAs he's posted were largely a mirage, and he's closer to a high-3s, low-4's kind of guy going forward.