On Tuesday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays signed Chris Archer to a one year deal, worth $6.5M.
This does come as a bit of a surprise, considering the Rays traded him to the Pirates in 2019. The Rays got a big return in this trade, receiving Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz. Tyler Glasnow is now a star pitcher for the Rays, having a 6-1 record in 2019, and a 5-1 record in 2020. Austin Meadows is a star DH, making it to the All Star Game in 2019. And Shane Baz is a top pitching prospect for the Rays.
Now, the Rays are getting Archer back, but a different Archer. One that’s a little more washed up, and one that’s coming off of a 2020 year where he ranked in the bottom 30 percent in the MLB in many advanced metric categories. They’re getting an Archer that’s coming off of a year where he posted a 5.31 ERA. But it wasn’t 2020 where he posted a 5.31 ERA, it was 2019. Archer did not participate in the 2020 season after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery, but is said to be 100% healthy to start 2021.
Archer, 32, posted a 3.62 ERA in parts of 7 seasons with Tampa, before getting dealt to Pittsburgh in July of 2018. Since then, he’s had an abysmal 4.92 ERA, in the time he’s spent with the Pirates.
Here is Archer’s pitch arsenal with the percentages of roughly how often he throws each pitch:
Fastball – 39.9%
Slider – 35.5%
Changeup – 12.1%
Sinker – 10.4%
Curveball 2.1%
As you can see, Archer throws a somewhat traditional arsenal. Swap the Slider and Curveball Percentages, and that’s about as generic as you could get.
The signing of a starting pitcher doesn’t come as that much of a surprise, considering they did let Morton walk, and they sent Snell to San Diego, leaving the Rays without two top pitchers in the game of baseball. They finished second in the bidding for former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber who went to the Yankees for $11M. They were also involved in the Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon trade talks. Musgrove ended up going to San Diego, and Taillon went to the Bronx. It’s just the signing of an old foe, Chris Archer, comes as a surprise.
The Rays also do need to clear up space on the 40 man roster for Archer as well.