There really was no other way the Chris Archer saga could have ended for the Pirates.
According to multiple reports, Archer is returning to the Rays on a one-year, $6.5 million deal.
The Pirates declined the last remaining club option on Archer’s contract in October, but didn’t completely close the door on a possible reunion. The Pirates are looking to add some starting pitching depth after trading Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon this offseason, but there was no indication that they aggressively pursued signing him.
Instead, the 32-year-old right-hander is returning to the team he spent the first seven years of his career with and where he was a two-time All-Star. The Pirates acquired him in a four-player trade during the 2018 trade deadline, sending Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to the Rays. So in a way, the Rays got those three players in exchange for a two-and-a-half year rental on Archer.
Archer never fit in with the Pirates, though, who instructed him to start throwing a sinker again to disastrous results. He went 6-12 with a 4.92 over 33 starts in his Pirates career. He underwent surgery to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome last June and missed the entire 2020 season.
Meanwhile, Meadows was an All-Star for the Rays in 2019, Glasnow has done his best pitching with the club and Bax was just ranked as MLB Pipeline’s 90th best prospect in baseball. That trade was a catalyst for the Pirates cleaning house after the 2019 season, which included the firings of team president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neal Huntington.