The Padres for most of the season have looked like a playoff team, but things have gotten a bit tenuous recently. Their lead for the second wild card in the NL is down to 2 1/2 games over the Reds. Part of the issue with the Padres right now would be the decimated rotation. The latest blow was placing Yu Darvish on the injured list Sunday with lower back tightness.

Perhaps even further illustrating how dire the situation is: The Padres are close to signing recently released veteran Jake Arrieta, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Don’t let the name recognition get you. The former Cy Young winner has looked totally cooked. He has a 5.44 ERA, 5.25 FIP and 1.57 WHIP in the last three seasons combined. That’s a 53-start sample. It’s gotten uglier as the months have progressed, too. In his last 15 starts this season with the Cubs, he had a 8.96 ERA while allowing opponents to hit .355/.421/.645 against him.

The Cubs have requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Jake Arrieta, per a team announcement. That move comes amid a series of transactions, as Chicago has also placed catcher Willson Contreras on the 10-day injured list with a sprained knee, reinstated catcher Austin Romine from the 60-day injured list, selected the contract of right-hander Ryan Meisinger from Triple-A Iowa, and designated lefty Kyle Ryan for assignment.

It’s been a miserable season for Arrieta in his return to Chicago. The former Cy Young winner got out to a nice start, working to a 2.57 ERA through April 25, but he’s been tattooed for 58 runs in 58 1/3 innings since that time. Opponents have racked up 91 hits, including 19 home runs, during that stretch. Last night’s outing was particularly non-competitive; Arrieta yielded seven runs in the first inning and ultimately departed after four frames with eight Brewers runs on the board.

The Cubs signed Arrieta to a one-year, $6MM deal over the winter with the hope that the injury troubles which plagued him during his three years with the Phillies were behind him. He’s avoided any notable arm troubles, but Arrieta’s fastball is sitting at a career-low 90.8 mph on the year and he’s seen across-the-board declines in swinging-strike rate, chase rate, home-run rate and walk rate. This marks the sixth straight season that he’s seen his ERA increase from the prior season.

Arrieta is still owed the balance of that $6MM salary — about $1.71MM between now and season’s end. He’s a lock to clear release waivers and become a free agent, but any team that signs him thereafter would only owe him the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the year. That sum would then be subtracted from the balance owed to him by the Cubs.