The Twins are adding to the rotation via free agency, announcing agreement with Chris Archer on a one-year deal. The VC Sports Group client reportedly receives a $3.5MM guarantee, consisting of a $2.75MM base salary and a $750K buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2023 season. Archer’s 2022 salary can max out at $9.5MM based on starts and/or games with at least three innings pitched, presumably to give him credit for “relief” outings following an opener. To create 40-man roster space, Minnesota sent left-hander Lewis Thorpe outright to Triple-A St. Paul.
Archer has barely pitched over the past couple seasons due to injury. He missed all of the shortened 2020 campaign after undergoing surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. Bought out by the Pirates after that season, he signed a one-year deal with the Rays but was limited to 19 1/3 innings during his second stint in Tampa Bay. The righty hit the injured list after just two appearances on account of forearm tightness. While it was initially hoped that’d be a brief stint, it kept him out of action until late August. He made four appearances late in the year upon returning, but issues with his left hip sent him back to the IL for a season-ending stay.
The lack of recent volume has been a new issue for Archer, who was a durable and highly productive arm early in his career. He exceeded 115 innings every year between 2013-19, including three consecutive 200-inning seasons with the Rays from 2015-17. Archer earned All-Star selections in two of those campaigns and picked up a fifth-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting during a 2015 season in which he posted a 3.23 ERA and a 3.08 SIERA.
Archer was a top-of-the-rotation arm during his best days in Tampa, combining for a 3.66 ERA with a strong 26.7% strikeout rate between 2014-17. The Rays flipped him to the Pirates in advance of the 2018 trade deadline, a now-infamous deal that saw Pittsburgh part with Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to pick up three and a half years of club control over Archer. Unfortunately for the Bucs, that deal looked regrettable almost from the get-go. Archer’s production went backwards early in his Pittsburgh tenure, and the team didn’t get a single inning from him during the affordable 2020-21 club options that had made him such an appealing target at the time of the trade.
It has been three years since Archer was a productive rotation member. He’s now 33 years old, and the mid-90s velocity he sported during his best days didn’t reappear in his brief return from TOS last year. Archer averaged only 92 MPH on his four-seam fastball after sitting in the 94-96 MPH range throughout his entire career previously.
The low-base, incentive-laden structure of the deal reflects both Archer’s decent upside and his three consecutive down seasons. If he stays healthy and cements himself in the rotation, he’ll have a chance to earn comparable salaries as back-end starters like Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney were guaranteed this winter. If he again struggles with injury, the club’s financial investment will be more minimal.
Archer figures to open the year at the back half of the Minnesota rotation. The Twins have made some major shakeups on the position player side, shipping out Mitch Garver and Josh Donaldson and bringing in Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela via trade before shockingly landing the market’s top free agent, Carlos Correa. That reaffirmed the Twins were all-in on rebounding from last season’s 73-89 finish.
The rotation has arguably been the team’s biggest weakness all winter, though. Minnesota landed Sonny Gray in a deal with the Reds and picked up Dylan Bundy on a reclamation free agent deal not all that dissimilar from today’s pact with Archer. After trading José Berríos last summer and losing Kenta Maeda to Tommy John surgery, they came into the offseason arguably needing three new arms to join Bailey Ober and rookie Joe Ryan in the season-opening starting staff.
Archer becomes the third such outside addition, although neither he nor Bundy is anything near a sure bet to provide reliable production. Pitching alternatives have gotten limited this late in the offseason, however, particularly with the Reds taking Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle off the trade block. A’s starters Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas looked like prime trade candidates, but the most recent reports suggest Oakland could carry both into the season. The free agent market had mostly thinned out as well, with Archer and Johnny Cueto representing the best remaining options.
The Twins move forward with Archer, who’ll presumably step into a season-opening starting five with Gray, Bundy, Ryan and Ober. Minnesota also has a trio of highly-regarded pitching prospects — Josh Winder, Jhoan Duran and Jordan Balazovic — who could factor into the mix as well. Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic wrote last week that Winder looked to be the first line of rotation reinforcements for the Twins, with Duran likelier to break into the bigs as a reliever. Given the recent injury histories of Bundy and Archer and the uncertainty of young arms like Ober and Ryan, it stands to reason Winder will get a look at some point early in the year.
Thorpe was a decently-regarded pitching prospect himself, but he hasn’t found a ton of big league success. The southpaw has tossed 59 1/3 innings in 24 outings as a swingman over the past three seasons, posting a 5.76 ERA. He was out of minor league option years, and the Twins have chosen to bump him from the 40-man roster rather than carry him on the big league club all year. Having already cleared outright waivers, the Australia native will remain in the organization without occupying a spot on the 40-man.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Twins and Archer had agreed to a $3.5MM deal that could max out at $9.5MM based on starts and/or three-inning appearances. Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com reported the $10MM mutual option, which Passan reported contained a $750K buyout.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
I figured Cueto would be the next name off the board. Interesting it is Archer.
I’d rather gamble on Cueto.
I have a feeling he might be heading to Minnesota as well. he’d be a great mentor for the young guns
Twins have been amazing this off season.
Amazingly inconsistent.
And here I thought this signing would throw some cold water on the folks who thought the Twins were going for it this season.
Please explain?
It appears they had a target.
Bullseye
Good luck, Big Tree. Always be one of my favorite pitchers.
Is he healthy?
Technically I believe he is. We won’t know till he starts throwing. In games.
Let’s see these bonuses
Oh good, now they can trade him to the Pirates for O’Neil Cruz and Quin Priester and Nicky Gonzales.
Don’t tempt them
Pirates would give up more, they look at that as a bargain.
I wish the Marlins would’ve signed him so they could trade him to the Pirates for Reynolds straight up.
No, now Archer’s salary is too high for Pirates to acquire him. Whew, they are dodging a bullet.
Different Pirates FO…..
Try to keep up.
It’s a joke…
Try to keep up.
I do think the joke loses some of its value considering this is a different regime. Gotta agree with Samuel on this one.
Well, if Huntington was still the GM, something like that might happen. Don’t think Cherington will pull the same stuff.
If Huntington was still the GM, it would not happen. Huntington made the ill-advised Archer trade at the end of Pittsburgh’s competitive window in an attempt to extend that window. Bad decision, but also not Huntington’s normal way of doing things. Since the Pirates are not yet in their competitive window, he, if still GM, would not make the trade. Try to follow how GMs work and look at the body of their work, not one trade. Huntington is also the tool who snared Reynolds.
Skeptical-Please don’t try to present reason and fact to those who have time on their hands to regurgitate the same stale references from years ago.They clearly did not see the reasons for the trade,and though criticism for adding Baz is reasonable,no one saw this extreme drop coming to Archer.
These posters are just having their fun in their own way,so please let them have it as they have no idea as to all of the trades that Huntington made that were generally very good ones.
Actually, FWIW I supported the trade. Hey, NH thought he had a chance at the golden ring, and he boldly went ahead. Ya, he got the particulars wrong; next week we’ll discuss how many bone-headed moves Theo Epstein has made. I admired the effort.
(But I NEVER thought Baz would be the PTBNL….that might have given me pause).
Bob-It gave NH pause too.Baz was named a week later after the trade and I remember NH saying that that player was especially going to hurt.
I know that you had supported the trade,but some of these posters just have to pick at someone and NH cannot pick back.You are one of the few who can comment intelligently about their non home team transactions
The Pirates were always criticized for holding onto their young players and for whatever reason or reasons neither Meadows nor Glasnow had proven themselves-Glasnow in the majors and Meadows in the minors.The Pirates had had two mediocre seasons after three almost great ones and you are correct,they were reaching for the ring.They would have had five solid starters with him.That season was the only winning one since 2015.
It just gets old seeing these negative comments about this trade and I knew that they would be voiced again for the millionth time with this article.
I usually agree with your comments but not this time concerning Meadows.
His minor league numbers ops, slg, obp are very similar to his MLB career numbers. The main difference being an increase in HRs but a decrease in doubles and triples.. I could never understand why the Pirates didn’t value him more.
Panj-The Pirates as a small market team have to do what they do in order to have a sustained( at least three years) winning era.Their plan since about 2010 was to get a good team and try to make the playoffs every year.Early on they had some good young players and NH was able to add through trades.They and all small market teams knew that they could not sign expensive free agents.
I always thought that Meadows and Glasnow both had high ceilings.To some extent they both showed that after being traded,although both also have shown that the Hall of Fame was smart in not electing them too early,Meadows had the one big year( the same year as Kevin Newman had),but has shown to be a reasonably good player otherwise.He was hurt a fair amount in the minors.
We know about Glasnow and his injury but his spin rate and sticky substance comment may be ominous.
As others have said this trade of these two players let alone Baz went against the grain of every Pirates fan and probably NH.But remember at that point in time the Pirates still had one of the top three or four outfields in baseball.There was no room for Meadows,and he had been compared to Mark Kotsay as a player,which could still be true.
Glasnow had been an enigma in the ML.I think that NH went against the grain and figured that he could get back to the playoffs if he had one more very good pitcher.The selling point was the years of control.
Oops!I said it then,you better have both a good and a healthy player or the years of control do not matter,especially if you are only getting back one good player.
I do not totally disagree with you on your take,but remember the Pirates had just fleeced the Rays out of a good player in Corey D.They did what the big boy clubs do,they traded young players for an older talented player.They just got it terribly wrong.But that is in hindsight.
We shall see what happens to Baz,and if this goes from a very bad trade to an awful one.
What it does probably mean is that you should not go too far out of your comfort zone in the type of trades that you make,especially if you have generally been good at it.
No he waits until they get good and sends them off for prospects so we can start all over again. Getting a little old already!
Steel city- Such is the life of any of the small market teams.
I think that it has gotten old long before now.But that is MLB.
We all have to live in reality, don’t we?
Check out what the Rays,Reds,A’s and Indians are doing.
The best thing that you could do is to move to LA or NYC and root for the mega bucks teams.
The Pirates generally do the best that they can in this unfair world.
Oof
probably the worst pitcher in baseball history as compared to hype.
^regrettable, flagrantly false comment^
Probably not. From his rookie season through 2019 he ranked 19th in fWAR and had a 9.80 K/9, a 3.84 ERA and a 3.65 FIP.
Clown comment. Archer had several good years, lots of guys have done worse with far more hype. Dice-k is probably the best example, or theres those who never made the league like Appel.
Dontrelle Willis?
Dontrelle Willis wasn’t overhyped. He just fizzled out after an excellent start to his career.
Dontrell pitch for half the teams in the league at the major league level that in itself is an accomplishment
My bad I was thinking of Octavio Dotel. To be fair that was in my twenties and I have kids from my twenties I hardly remember.
I don’t know what you’re saying
Maybe he meant that Dontrelle is a better comparison to Archer, a fizzle rather than an overhype.
Darren Dreifort for the win
Great comment.The Archer Dice K comparison is perfect.Both have great stuff but often have thrown 100 pitches by the 5th inning.
Hideki Irabu?
How could you give 12 million dollars to Hideki Itabu?!
The fat toad.
Sid Finch without a doubt.
He’s off at a monastery in Tibet, so they say.
he wouldn’t be in the top 100. The Orioles alone have Archer crushed in Matt Riley, Adam Loewen, Dylan Bundy, and (arguably) Jake arrieta. And that’s just a couple decades of one team
My vote goes for Kris Benson, partly because his then wife made it really weird.
Kris Benson isn’t even the most overhyped Mets pitcher in their history…or even playing for them at the time he was there.
Not even close.. and you don’t have to look far too find a better example. Matt Moore was a Rays prospect at the same time Archer was coming up. Moore was ranked the best prospect in baseball and has been far worse than Archer.
Idk about that. Idk whether others will remember, but Strasburg was probably the most hyped that I can think of and he hasn’t really impressed, imho. I’m not saying Strasburg has been terrible/injured his entire career, but the hype was ridiculous!! They thought he was going to be a right handed Randy Johnson!
If we’re going on hype I agree that Strasburg is up there.
nah, he had a few good seasons at least. the terrible pirates trade just made him seem worth even more than usual
How about Kyle Drabek or Zach Lee?
Who are you and what have you done with the real Minnesota Twins? I thought it was stated in the organizational by-laws that paying lip service to “trying to win” was the same thing as “trying to win”. I realize Chris Archer isn’t likely to move the needle, but at least it shows some initiative. Go Twins! The Minnesota faithful deserve a good faith effort from the team’s front office.
Oh this is a standard Twins signing. A late signing guy that nobody else wanted because his peak was 5 years ago “but maybe they’ll recapture it”
Exactly….let us remind u of last year Rich Hill success
prototypical Twinks pitcher FA pick up that has maybe 30% chance of panning out. I still have a feeling they are contenders with extra teams added in October which then makes Twinks buyers at the deadline.
Exactly….let us remind u of last year Rich Hill success lol
prototypical Twinks pitcher FA pick up that has maybe 30% chance of panning out. I still have a feeling they are contenders with extra teams added in October which then makes Twinks buyers at the deadline
Falvey & Levine for Cashman.
Who hangs up first?
If it costs any extra, the Yankees. It would be interesting to have two Levines though….
Lord. Cash probably costs *more*. In which case…well, I guess we’d need to add a prospect or two so the Twins would absorb the difference. Ya know. Like when we traded for Garcia. Twins got a nice reliever out of it last time. & we got a crummy Jaime Garcia that we didn’t have to pay. So the template is there, Clip.
Luis gil (min) for Jake Cave ?
Tyler Austin and Zach Littell for Jaime Garcia ?
So much for a “nice reliever”
The trade was actually Dietrich Enns & Zach Littel. & in ’19 Littel had a nice – uh – little run for them. They got much more out of him than we did Garcia.
No one answers when you call collect.
Elton and him did not play career Russian roulette
@YBC –
Look. I’m just trying to get a deal done here. Why do you guys keep insisting on throwing up all these roadblocks, man?
2.75. Why not? The Twins are exciting. I love it.
Sure are.
Unfortunately, Minneapolis isn’t really a baseball town. The Twins are rather low in the sports pecking order. The Twins fans I know don’t seem to realize that they are supposed to be excited.
I had a feeling – & even posted as such – that the chaotic market that ensued post lockout would create an arena that Falvey & Levine would successfully navigate.
They are putting in some work. I don’t think they are done either. When the dust settles I will be surprised if they haven’t put a 90-ish win roster together. They completely out-hustled Brian Cashman & haven’t looked back since. That part pisses me off. But I gotta tip my cap, serious.
LOL Minneapolis actually is a very good baseball town. That’s why the Twins Cities can support a MLB team and AAA team (St. Paul Saints)
And north-west woods league
I live in Minneapolis. I have lived in other cities too. Hockey & the Vikings are out & away the sports priorities. The Twins & Timberwolves fight for third place. Both draw well when they play well. Otherwise, not so much.
The Twins rely on out of state fans (i.e. the Dakota’s, Northern IA, etc) as a needed source of income/fans. Not to mention rural Minnesotans. That’s all actually pretty well known out here.
As for the Saints, we’re talking about a few thousand fans. They also play in a different city too. Not sure of the relevance.
Amazing! And Pittsburgh can only support one AA team!
I live in Saint Paul. The Vikings are clearly the #1 team. After that it’s the Twins by a healthy margin over the Wild. People who care about the Wild are crazy about them but most people don’t care about pro hockey all that much. Absolutely ridiculous to say that the Twins are based on out of state fans. The Wild may occasionally pass the Twins when they are good and the Twins are not but that’s momentary.
The Wolves are in last.
Hockey in general is more popular than baseball but for a lot of people that’s high school and college hockey.
1.) Didn’t post “the Wild.” Posted: “hockey.” (Which does include the Wild to an extent.)
I have absolutely no idea how anyone who lives here can possibly think baseball is more popular than hockey. It is not. & it’s not particularly close.
2.) Never posted that they are “based on out of state fans” either. Yes. That would indeed be ridiculous. Rather, I posted that out of state fans are an important *part* of their fan base. Which is common knowledge!
3.) If you have never lived elsewhere, I can see having the notion that Minneapolis is a “baseball town.”. I assure it is not. Go to St Louis, Philly, Boston, even NY &/or Chicago, & then get back to me.
I am not insulting Minneapolis, the Twins, or their fans. At all. I am just saying that the Twins & Timberwolves are fighting for third place. When the Wolves are good they draw at least as well as the Twins.
The overall reaction to the Twins at the moment is one of indifference. I cannot see how you can believe otherwise.
1) Well then it’s stupid to compare the Vikings and Twins to “Hockey”. I corrected it for you because it seemed stupid. We’re talking fandom, not playing. More kids probably play hockey and people are crazy into it but that’s mostly irrelevant when it comes to the pro level.
2) “The Twins rely on out of state fans as a needed source of income/fans.” Again, you make statements that are irrelevant to your point then? Every single baseball team relies on fans far from the metro area. People come into Chicago and NY and Saint Louis and Kansas City to see a game. You keep making statements and then pretending you meant nothing by them.
3.) I’ve lived in NYC and Chicago.
4.) I think you’re a Wild Fanboy who thinks that everyone cares as much about the Wild as you do. Wild fandom is very strong but it is not all that broad. Most people don’t enjoy watching hockey on TV and they don’t follow the team all that closely. Twins fandom is much broader and, when they’re good, way deeper.
No one talks to me about how good the Wild are. Most people can’t name two Wild players. Most people can name Twins players.
Sure. Fine.
You’re right. Whatever. Minneapolis is the rootin-est, tootin-est baseball town ever. Or whatever you feel you need to claim. How could I have been so wrong. After all: the twin cities support not only the twins but the *saints* as well.
The fan outpouring is amazing, etc, etc, etc. The Twins are always the talk of the town, etc, etc, etc.
P.S. I will only watch hockey when the Rangers are in the Stanley Cup finals.
Go Rag$!
FYI:
MN Wild: 4th in NHL in attendance
MN Timberwolves: 20th in attendance
MN Twins: 19th in attendance
MN Lynx: First in WNBA attendance (ahem)
Exactly my assertion. Twins & Timberwolves duking it out for a distant third (4th?). Look. I’m sure if I was a Cardinals fan – for example – you would have agreed with me immediately.
Self evident truth is self evident truth, however. Kind of hard to argue with exact numbers. Not much else to say.
MN Wild – Playoffs last year
MN Timberwolves – Sucked since the dawn of man
MN Twins – Sucked last year
MN Lynx – Playoffs and 3rd in the League last year
Yes.
Again, exactly what I posted; “Both draw well when they play well. Otherwise not so much.” Well, 19th & 20th certainly qualifies as; “not so much.”
Just give up, man.
You guys are just starting to look silly, stubborn, & completely out of touch with the city you supposedly live in. You guys should just admit you are full of crap or just stop posting. I am getting embarrassed for you, serious.
I am not sorry the Big, Bad, Yankee fan has you all triggered out. Because that is entirely on you.
You just highlighted the idiocy of finding one stat and making it say what you want it to say:
(1) 41 games vs 81 games. Big difference when you use average.
(2) You chose a one year sample. The Wild are good now and the Twins were off last year. It’s obviously going to favor you. Come back to me when you look at a wider sample.
(3) Also, way to pick an atypical year. The Twins were during the height of Covid while the Wild season has largely been after the fact. Wild fans tend towards more conservative and suburban, who are less impacted by Covid.
(4) Also, you’re comparing the Wild to all other NHL teams and the Twins to all other MLB teams and pretending that’s the same as comparing the Wild to the Twins. The NHL is in a bunch of towns that are not clear hockey towns. Of course MN is going to be higher within the NHL, it’s a bigger market compared to Canadian markets. It’s a better climate for youth outreach than Phoenix or Tampa. MN is competing against massive markets and a sport that is played more regularly in warmer climates.
You can introduce numbers but to cherry pick on stat and say you’re right is ridiculous.
P.S. I had no idea that you were a Yankee fan when I objected. That’s actually irrelevant.
By the eye test & metrics my point is – hands down – completely accurate. You don’t like it. Too bad. Lord. Attendance is the bottom line, bro! Fight it all you want, man. However: the truth is right effin there. I made my claim & *then* looked the numbers up.
Lo & behold they fell perfectly in line with my post.
For 20+ to years the MN sports hierarchy is:
Football/Vikings & Hockey/Wild.
& in the far in the distance:
Twins/Baseball & Timberwolves/Hoops
Scuffling for 3rd. If one happens to be playing well, the bandwagon fans join in this, thus “swelling” their ranks for the year.
The real irony is my original posts were very complimentary towards your club. Perhaps this is an example of how an outsider sometimes has a better understanding of a situation. Like a corporate advisor or whatever.
Don’t know. I cannot fathom seeing a more influential argument than what I have presented. It doesn’t tally with your paradigm so you are kicking back on it. Stick your head in the sand all you want. But: I have shown clearly & concisely the reality of Minneapolis & baseball.
Yes. There is a little group of dedicated Twins fans in Minneapolis. The rest are classic bandwagon fans. Grumble, stomp your feet, & moan all you want. Be mad at me about it if that helps you. Won’t change reality.
If you gave me free tickets to Vikings, Wild or Wolves, I’d sell them on Marketplace or throw them in the garbage. Go Twins!
Glad you brought that up.
I actually get free tickets from my building materials reps & homeowners. Pretty frequently. Well, occasional Wild & lots of Twins anyway. Never Vikings, once the Timberwolves.
I have tried to use the Twins tix as a SPIF for my sales guys. No takers. They act insulted. However: Wild *preseason* tickets create actual competition(!). I don’t know why this all makes you guys so mad. I really don’t. In the words of Joe Girardi, “it is what it is.’
I understand that everyone on here is a rabid Twins fan. Doesn’t change the city’s ultimate preferences, however.
Garver > Sanchez
Donaldson > Urshela
So the Twins had to give up a good piece in Garver, to facilitate C4 signing
…
Somehow the Yankees didn’t get Garver tho that part leaves me baffled
Gary Sanchez is one of the worst defensive catchers of all time , he has an arm but mehhhhhhhhhhh
Phat Sancho career DRS: -6.
Trust me. Gary Sanchez is far from “one of the the worst defensive catchers ever”. The Yanks screwed him up. When he first came up, he hit very well, he threw very well, & he was a pretty good framer. He blocked poorly. But he was far from a disaster.
We should have left him be.
Instead we began a yearly tinkering with him which led to a complete overhaul & all of it made him worse. Best thing for Gary is getting the hell outta NYC.
I’ll see him play out here. He damn near dragged us into the WC game all by himself (along with some fantastic managing by Joe G) in ’16 & came up big, time after time in ’17. I still remember that & will absolutely always root for him.
A struggling Gary Sanchez might be the most difficult player I have ever had to watch. But when he is locked in Gary can hit. No doubt about that.
Please go back to you NYC bubble, you don’t know of which you speak of.
Aww, you guys are stuck with me, bro.
I love it out here. Gives a guy a chance to be a big fish in a small pond.
Man. Sometimes I forget how all triggered out the Yankees & their fans make you guys. Just trying to talk some baseball & you fellas are freaking the eff out! Of course, there is a pretty good reason for that. We all know what that is. So I won’t belabor the point.
& to be frank, I probably have significantly more pull in this town than you do, sport. Which – trust me – I savor greatly.
Also: do some editing. Your “post” comes off as struggling with basic literacy issues.
Go Yanks!
I believe nothing in your post above other than being a typical Yankees fan.
^ triggered
something, something, 18 straight games, something, something…
Not triggered, just stating the obvious, typical blow hard Yankees fan.
Hey, whatever you need to tell yourself, tiger. But when you resort to petty insults, it is easy to see that your argument – as such – is a lost cause & that the bald kid is all kinds of triggered.
I get it.
My club has absolutely humiliated yours & you have taken it personally. In ’19, I caught a radio show. The topic: would you rather beat the Yankees or win the series.
Bro. Beat the Yankees won.
Which is unbelievably pathetic. Have a good one, son.
Wouldn’t be the first time a pitcher with a history of success faded from the spotlight, for various reasons, only to emerge the pitcher he once was. It’s a good gamble!
Definitely a fair deal. Don’t see it often.
ERA will be north of 5, can’t wait for the CWS tee him up!
Maybe (probably…), but it would be fun, too, to see the Chisox completely handcuffed by Archer. Even if not, it’s a cheap gamble for the Twins, and it gives players like Josh Winder a little more time to recover and ease into a major-league job.
Archer can be cut easily enough given a bad April/May performance. (Unfortunately, though, Twins Ownership likes to squeeze every dime out of their investments, so Archer may linger around all year). Still… hope springs eternally in Twins Territory.
Or he could revert back to his old self and become a reliable No.2 starter, tee of on the CWS. Who knows?
he hasn’t been “his old self” in about half a decade now.
TOS is a career ender in a lot of cases. Archer still has not proved its not going to end his career. Matt Harvey threw a lot of innings after his TOS. However he also was not a good pitcher after the operation. I doubt Archer is ever effective again. Not a good signing.
Archer keeps getting lowballed. He’s a solid #3 starter and worth more than the Twins signed him for
2016 called, he wants your opinion back! All joking aside, good low-risk pick-up for the Twinkies. I’m hoping he’s as good or better than a standard #3… but that seems unlikely based upon his past 5 years.
He’s coming off a 20 inning season, TOS, and then two pretty mediocre seasons. That’s not #3 material unless he bounces back significantly
Have you looked at the Twins rotation? For them he could be the three.
I’m sure Rocco Baldelli weighed into this decision as he was with the Rays during Archer’s better years.
Thorpe’s better TBH
Not to say who is better than who, but a bummer for Thorpe. 59.1 innings spread across three separate seasons isn’t much of a look. Obviously the Twins have a more realistic feel when it comes to his ability than I do, but he reeks of a guy that I think could blossom in another environment.
im shocked no one claimed him for SP depth. is he injured or something?
His fastball is maxing out at 89, i believe.
Good low-risk pickup. If he stays healthy, he’ll be the 4.50 ERA/ 1.50 WHIP innings-eater type Min tends to like.
At that price, surprised the Marlins didn’t make a better offer. They could have used a solid starter like Archer for that staff.
They have about five guys at league minimum who are better lmao
Debatable
Is that a placeholder message? Debate it! Win the internet!
The Marlins have about 8 starters who are better than Archer.
Since 2017
10-18 4.70 ERA
287 IP of 89 ERA+ BALL
1.389 WHIP & 47 HRs allowed
At age 33, he’s pitched a total of 34 innings (including minors) since being shut down in mid-August of 2019.
One of the most overrated pitchers in recent memory. I remember all of the hype he had because he recorded a lot of strikeouts.
There is no reward here.
WOW coming from YOU!
That’s saying something!
Not a bad low-risk pickup, but a little confusing since it’s also not the kind of move a team with playoff aspirations usually makes. Still expecting to hear news any day on where Montas and Manaea are headed.
Good for Archer.
White Sox
Tigers
Twins
SPIDERS
Royals
True , maybe , but the Royals are cominnng. CAN Whit Merrifield find his youth for another 3 years ?
Flip Detroit and Twins and you have it.
How do some of these people still get jobs. There has to be minimum wage cheap players in the minors who can do just as well as him, or Harvey, or anyone else throwing consistently in the high 4.00 and 5s era. So dumb.
@ findingnimmo;
Your answer may be in a comment above – about the Twins “trying to win”. The owner seems to be doing everything he can to assure fans that they’re not going to have to sit through another 5-6 year rebuild….which would have had his picture posted in all the local post office lobbies for getting the taxpayers to finance that new park.
Then again, a $3.5MM guarantee for Archer speaks volumes about his Baseball IQ and his desperation (i.e if the Rays with their pitching staff couldn’t fix him, what makes any rational baseball person think that the Twins with their record can?).
The Twins won for a few years due to the juiced ball. They and the Yankees hit routine fly balls that carried for HR’s convincing some in their ownership and the fans that they were a powerful team. When the ball was “unjuiced” (as one sharp poster here referred to it), both those teams fell out. As I understand it, the Twins FO heads wanted to do a rebuild after the season. The owner jumped in and stated that the Twins were going to contend in 2022. That’s nice. In addition to the juiced ball the Twins looked like a power because the years they won the ALC 3 of the other 4 teams in the division were in major rebuilds. The landscape has changed. Reality is about to bite.
As for Mr. Archer – nice guy. Perhaps a miracle will occur…..if not, he just got more money for 2022 than an upper middle class couple will make in their lifetimes.
The team would have been better off with Pineda @ 1/5.5 mil.
I think Archer will be a successful Enterprise, as long as he doesn’t Tucker out and Trip.
The Twins are certainly assembling an interesting team. They could either be a solid competitor or a nasty train wreck
Bad move.
No way this guy can be relied on as a rotation arm at this point. It’s a lottery ticket pick up.
Chris Archer’s agent is a genius. How this dude keeps getting major league contracts is very puzzling. Good for him, but not so good for his team.
I hope the Twins are able to get some value out of him.
I can’t believe a team would give him a major league deal at this point. He hasn’t been good in about five years and hasn’t been healthy for the past few.
Ewwww…Archer. Signing him is like going home with the ugly chick at last call.
Bummed for Aussie Lewis Thorpe, hoping he has a strong showing in AAA
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
As a White Sox fan, I approve of this move by the Twins and they should bring in Cueto as well.
No way that 2nd year gets excerpted
Al Avila is AFRAID of trade chips…… His wife might think he is sneaking cookies at night….. Ahoy!
This may be an extremely dumb question so I apologize ahead of time, but with Archer’s lack of innings the past few years, would he be best coming out of the ‘pen?!?!