Pirates A to Z: After celebrated arrival, Chris Archer's exit could be through back door

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z, an alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Trevor Williams. (The only MLB player with a surname that starts with Z is Detroit Tigers pitcher Jordan Zimmerman).

Chris Archer

Position: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Age: 32

Height: 6-foot-2

Weight: 195 pounds

2020 MLB statistics: Missed the entire season after undergoing neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in June.

Contract: Archer is slated for $11 million in the final year of his three-year deal, if the club picks up his option. He has a $250,000 buyout.

Acquired: Traded to the Pirates from the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Tyler Glasnow, outfielder Austin Meadows and minor league pitcher Shane Baz, a 2017 first-round pick, on July 31, 2018.

This past season: Archer’s surgery, combined with Jameson Taillon being out while recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, left the Pirates without a top-of-the rotation starter.

“He’s a really skilled pitcher,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said of Archer. “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.”

The toughest news, at least for Pirates fans, is watching Glasnow and Meadows thrive in Tampa Bay, where they became All-Stars. While the Pirates (19-41) produced the worst record in MLB — and fifth-worst winning percentage in club history — the Rays (40-20) won the AL East with baseball’s second-best record and reached the World Series.

After going 54-68 with a 3.69 ERA in seven seasons in Tampa Bay, with three seasons of 10 or more victories and a pair of All-Star selections in 2015 and ’17, Archer might go down as one of the worst returns on a trade in baseball history. Ultimately, the fallout from the trade played a pivotal role in costing president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle their jobs last fall.

Archer was 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 33 starts over two seasons with the Pirates, going 3-3 with a 4.30 ERA in 10 starts in 2018 and 3-9 with a 5.19 ERA in 119 2/3 innings over 23 starts last year. Worse yet, he gave up 33 home runs in those 33 starts.

Chris Archer gives up 4 home runs in one inning to the Braves, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/dLUK3CGDUS

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) June 17, 2019

“I feel like the biggest thing is health, man. The first six years in Tampa, I was healthy. You can look at my numbers,” said Archer, who was bothered in ’18 by an abdominal strain that required offseason hernia surgery and in ’19 by thumb and hip injuries. “I just need to be on the field and not have any ailment. … It’s hard for anybody to put up numbers when you’re not healthy. It’s tough.”

Chris Archer, injury ? pic.twitter.com/3Hs6rz3HQa

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 20, 2019

The future: Archer’s lost season has clouded his future with the club, despite their desperate need for starting pitching.

Archer was shut down in August 2019 with shoulder inflammation.

The Pirates said Archer had surgery in St. Louis, then spent the recovery in his offseason home in California. Instead of being added to the 60-man roster so that he could rehabilitate with the team, like Taillon, Archer never reported to PNC Park this summer.

Cherington deftly avoided discussing Archer’s contract status and future with the team every time he was asked about it, leading to the likelihood the Pirates will buy out the final year of his contract instead of again making him the team’s highest-paid player.

“As with any contract decision, option or otherwise, we’re going to take advantage of all of the time that we possibly have to make those decisions,” Cherington said in June. “I mean, we won’t have games to evaluate, but there will be other information that we have at that time that we don’t have now. So we’ll just want to take all the time we have, and I think with really any decision that we’d make in baseball operations, we want to take all the time we possibly can until we have no time remaining, and then make the best decision we can at that time.”

Y’all might remember Chris Archer’s debut by his box score but this is how I’ll remember it. pic.twitter.com/vik4ZtwCku

— Zachary Smith (@Z23smitty) August 4, 2018

Archer arrived with such fanfare, wearing an Antonio Brown jersey and wearing No. 24 instead of his customary No. 22 out of deference to the popularity of former Pirates star Andrew McCutchen. Pirates fans celebrated his debut as Archer Day, slinging imaginary arrows after every strikeout, and cheering his fiery displays on the mound.

Chris Archer might have a better backpedal than Artie Burns pic.twitter.com/swD0fLhiM6

— Jake Oswalt (@TheWizOfOz11) April 1, 2019

His exit, however, will be through the back door. And he won’t be backpedaling.

If Archer’s time in Pittsburgh is coming to an end, it will go down as a nothing short of disastrous. And the Pirates’ best decision might be to rid themselves of one of the worst moves in club history.