During the past 10 years, Jim Schlossnagle has witnessed Jake Arrieta vary his routines and workouts, and he was there when the pitcher learned a valuable lesson before his junior year at Texas Christian.
"Sometimes more isn't better," recalled Schlossnagle, Arrieta's coach at TCU. "He would lift 10 repetitions during his sophomore year (when Arrieta went 14-4 with a 2.35 ERA) and think that 25 repetitions might be better.
"He ran himself into the ground and took a step back. He learned from that."
After compiling a heavy workload last year while winning the National League Cy Young Award and leading the Cubs to the NL Championship Series, Arrieta has taken subtle steps to prepare his valuable right arm for the anticipated rigors of a 2016 season saturated with high expectations.
"You can be in the best shape in the world, but your body can say, 'Hey, this is an area we're a little unfamiliar with,' " Arrieta said last month during the Cubs Convention, three weeks before agreeing last week to a one-year, $10.7 million contract. "It's just something you've got to deal with and prepare for. I met that mark now, and I will be better equipped handling that workload this year.
"It's only a positive having the workload last year moving forward. It's going to be a positive for us."
After a season in which he increased his workload by 92 innings (including the postseason), Arrieta tweaked his routine to allow his arm extra time to recover while not stunting his preparation. He performed "dry deliveries," in which he worked on his windup and leg drive without throwing a ball.
That helped him maintain proper mechanics once he resumed throwing last month, and he continued to polish his changeup _ a pitch that isn't considered stressful on his arm and provides great deception when mixed with his 95 mph fastball and knee-buckling slider.
"It really feels like I never stopped throwing," Arrieta said.
Arrieta's training methods -- which include Pilates and a diet that involves kale juice -- were documented repeatedly from last spring to the end of his 22-win season.
Schlossnagle recalled Arrieta exploring other ways to prepare, based on his conversations with TCU's flexibility and nutrition experts dating to 2006.
"He just wakes up every morning and asks himself, 'What do I need to do to be better?' " Schlossnagle said.
With the addition of John Lackey, the re-signing of Trevor Cahill and Clayton Richard and an expected rebound from Jon Lester, the Cubs might not need to lean as heavily on Arrieta as they did last year, when they adjusted their rotation in late August to line him up to face the Giants and Dodgers and the Pirates in the NL wild-card game.
President Theo Epstein intimated he would settle for the same quality without the similar quantity from Arrieta.
"We'll be smart about it as to how he goes about his spring training and how we try to manage his workload early in the season and ease him up," Epstein said at the Cubs Convention.
Unlike last February, Arrieta isn't scheduled to pitch in the TCU alumni game Saturday. He departed for Arizona nearly two weeks before the Cubs' first workout for pitchers and catchers Feb. 20.
But Arrieta and Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter, another TCU alumnus, will return to Fort Worth to speak Friday night at the Horned Frogs' First Pitch banquet.
"He hasn't forgotten his roots," Schlossnagle said.
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