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Two weeks into spring training, Chris Archer was counting down the days until Opening Day and the possibility of pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Tampa Bay Rays.
For Archer, it would have marked a return to Tropicana Field and a shot at redemption for the ill-fated and lopsided trade that has haunted him since his arrival in Pittsburgh in August 2018.
Instead, the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring training and delayed the start of the season. The neck stiffness that bothered Archer eventually led to surgery this week for thoracic outlet syndrome, ending his 2020 season before it ever began.
In a conversation with Archer in late February at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla., the 31-year-old right-hander was blunt about how he has performed for the Pirates and been judged by former Pirates general manager Neal Huntington’s trade-deadline deal that sent promising outfielder Austin Meadows and pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to the Rays.
Like that trade, his words would haunt him.
“I feel like the biggest thing is health, man,” Archer said. “The first six years in Tampa, I was healthy. You can look at my numbers.”
Archer was 54-68 with a 3.69 ERA in seven seasons in Tampa Bay, including three seasons with 10 or more victories and a pair of All-Star selections in 2015 and ‘17.
But Archer has been injury riddled the past two seasons, with an abdominal strain that bothered him early in ’18 and required offseason hernia surgery. Last season, he was bothered by thumb and hip injuries before being shut down in late August for the remainder of the season because of right shoulder soreness.
“I was healthy for part of the season in ’18 and I wasn’t really that healthy last year in ’19,” Archer said. “That’s why I don’t feel like I have to do anything different. I just need to be on the field and not have any ailment. That’s why I changed things up to what worked for me and me specifically because if I’m on the field, I’m going to put up numbers. If I’m banged up and trying to fight through stuff – it didn’t work out last year, whether it was lower body or shoulder or whatever. It’s hard for anybody to put up numbers when you’re not healthy. It’s tough.”
Archer has been a disappointment from the start for the Pirates, who acquired him in hopes of contending for the playoffs only to see him go 1-2 with a 6.45 ERA in August. Archer is 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 33 starts over two seasons, going 3-9 with a 5.19 ERA in 119 2/3 innings last season.
Meantime, Meadows and Glasnow became key pieces for Tampa Bay’s 98-win playoff team last season. Where Glasnow was an early Cy Young candidate after starting 6-1 with a 1.78 ERA, Meadows blossomed into an All-Star who hit 33 home runs. Baz, the No. 12 overall pick in 2017, averaged 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings in the Arizona Fall League.
“I’m fueled by me,” Archer said. “I have the highest standard for myself, whether I got traded for an A-ball prospect or the people I got traded for. I also have a really long track record in this game. I love the Tampa Bay organization so it was nice to see them do well, but I’m not motivated any more or less based off someone else’s success, do you know what I mean?”
With Jameson Taillon out for the season following Tommy John surgery, Archer was counting on this to be a bounce-back season. He made 32 or more starts in four consecutive seasons and pitched 200-plus innings each year from 2015-17.
The Pirates picked up Archer’s club option this offseason — making him the team’s highest-paid player at $9 million — in hopes that he would become the top-of-the-rotation starter they so desperately wanted and needed. Archer has a club option for $11 million for 2021 but the Pirates own a $250,000 buyout.
“He’s a really skilled pitcher,” said Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, who was hired last fall to replace Huntington. “He’s been a really successful starting pitcher in the major leagues. We need more of those. It’s tough news for us. It’s even tougher news for him, that he’s not going to be able to be out there and pitch.”
Archer learned from previous trades not to take it personally. He was drafted by Cleveland in the fifth round of Clayton (N.C.) High School in 2006, dealt to the Chicago Cubs in ‘08, to Tampa Bay in ’11 and to the Pirates in ’18.
“I’ve been traded three times, so early on I realized it’s not about comparing yourself with other people,” Archer said. “I’m really focused on myself. I’m not ignorant or blind to the fact that those guys are huge pieces of their success last year.
“But I think in 2020 I’m going to contribute equally, if not more – definitely more than I did last year. I’m going to have the same impact as those guys over there. But I don’t really look at it as a comparison because that’s not fair, dude. Two people are usually going to have more impact than one – and they have another guy in the minors, so three players are going to have more impact than one.”
Especially one that won’t play this summer, if there is a baseball season, in what might have been Archer’s last chance to change the course of a trade that will go down as a colossal disaster for the Pirates.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Pirates/MLB | Sports
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Chris Archer's health issues made Tampa Bay trade a colossal disaster that haunts the Pirates - TribLIVE
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