Tampa Bay Rays looking at possible Chris Archer return for 2021
By James Kelly
The Tampa Bay Rays may be looking to a familiar face in Chris Archer to address the starting rotation hole left by Charlie Morton.
The Tampa Bay Rays traded Chris Archer to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows in 2018. Now, according to a report by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, they may want to bring him back to fill the hole left by Charlie Morton‘s departure.
Archer was due $11 million from the Pirates in 2021, but the team declined his option. He enters the free agent pool having struggled since joining the Pirates and missing the entirety of the 2020 season. In 2019, he posted a 5.19 ERA in 23 starts. He allows hard contact and had a SO/W of 2.60 in 2019.
To be it plainly, Archer simply isn’t a viable replacement for Morton. And bringing him back isn’t going to fix the Rays rotation issues in 2021. Especially if they also move Blake Snell this off-season to avoid paying him the $3.5 million raise he’s due.
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It’s frustrating conduct from a team that just made it to the World Series with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Any other team in baseball would, at the very least, try to retain the talent that got them to the last game of the year. Most would look for the next piece that gets them closer to reach the mountaintop.
But not the Rays. The Rays would rather lose two of their aces to free agency or trades instead of paying them a fair contract. And they’d rather take a chance on Archer as a distressed asset than pay an established pitcher to fill the void. Sure, their analytic approach can probably get more out of Archer than the Pirates did. But even with the team in 2016 and 2017, Archer’s struggles began to become more apparent. He’s a far cry from the production in his first three years in the league. And he’s only getting older.
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Unless the Tampa Bay Rays make other moves to improve around Archer, they’re risking their dominance in the AL East. They’re poised to take a big step back just one season after making it to the World Series. Chris Archer can be a good pitcher for them, but he’s not the answer to their starting pitching problem.