Don't be alarmed, Cubs fans, but Jake Arrieta shaved off his beard

Cubs fans, we do not mean to alarm you. We know you're still basking in the warm, championship-y glow of Wednesday night. We know you're delighting in the most recent episode of "Saturday Night Live." But there is Breaking News: Some time in the past 48 hours, Jake Arrieta performed his ritual offseason beard shave.  

If we enhance this seemingly innocuous tweet from John Lackey's wife, Kristina, we see …

a very clean shaven Arrieta.
Not that this should come as a surprise. The Cubs ace did the same thing following his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2015, and despite some (OK, probably unfounded) fears that it would lead to a Samson-esque draining of his superhuman pitching abilities, Arrieta threw a second no-hitter in 2016 and led the Cubs to, you know, their first World Series championship in 108 years.
But still. It's a bit startling to see such a beardless face on a man who, as of two days ago, could've starred in The Revenant 2: Let's Get Revenanter. 

We just have to accept that every November, Arrieta is going to bare his soul -- er, face -- to the world. He will spend his offseasons clean shaven. At least this year, he's a clean-shaven world champ.