In the waning moments of the trade deadline last season, Pittsburgh made a splash by trading for Tampa Bay Rays ace pitcher Chris Archer in exchange for pitcher Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Austin Meadows.
I was in my car driving along I-79 just outside of Pittsburgh at the moment it was announced, and soon calls into the city’s sports radio station, 93.7 The Fan, were flooding in with ecstatic, if not delirious, Pirates fans thrilled with the trade.
Caller after caller commented that this was the organization’s commitment to winning, and that the team would be competing for a playoff spot as the season winded down.
We know now, of course, that the Bucs didn’t even sniff the playoffs down the stretch. The team finished 13 games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central and eight games back from a Wild Card spot.
At the time, the trade didn’t make much sense, and especially now, it doesn’t make sense for Pittsburgh.
It isn’t that Chris Archer isn’t worth his salt as a star pitcher. He’s more than shown he’s a capable starter in the Pirates rotation, which is arguably baseball’s best at this point in the year.
Archer is 1-1, and his ERA of 2.74 ranks 16th in all of baseball, and, suspension aside, he tends to be a durable starter.
The issue is, the pieces Pittsburgh traded away have shown similar quality in Tampa, particularly Glasnow.
Think an ERA of 2.74 is impressive? Try Glasnow’s 1.53 ERA through five games — a full game more than Archer has pitched so far. That ranks third overall in the MLB. Additionally, Glasnow’s WHIP of 0.92 is better than Archer’s 1.13. Glasnow is also five years younger.
Sure, this may be splitting hairs between two exceptional pitchers, but don’t forget the Bucs also shipped Meadows, who was named the American League Player of the Week last week. (And coincidentally received the same honor in the National League not long before the trade.)
Meadows’ batting average stands at .351, good for 10th in all of baseball right now, and his OPS (on base + slugging) of 1.097 is also 10th in the bigs.
It’s early and both guys may regress as the season goes on, but the same can be said of Archer, who hasn’t posted an ERA under 4.00 since 2015.
The contract situations of each player are where things may get a little more complicated. Both Glasnow and Meadows are free agents at the conclusion of this season, while the Pirates have team options for the 2020 and 2021 seasons on Archer.
But Glasnow was due just $566,700 this season and Meadows just $557,000. Archer? He’s making an average annual salary of $4.25 million. Even with pay increases due for Meadows and Glasnow next year, it’s hard to imagine they would have commanded much more than Archer is earning now, at least not by a lot, and at the ripe ages of 23 (Meadows) and 25 (Glasnow). They could have been under Pittsburgh’s control for quite a while if the Bucs could have reached extensions with them.
Archer, meanwhile, will be 32 at the end of his deal with Pittsburgh, should the team pick up its options for the next two seasons.
So Pittsburgh, with a front office that consistently bemoans its small market size and lack of ability to pay big contracts, shipped away two young, talented players just before their prime for an ace on the verge of his mid-30s.
That isn’t the recipe for success for a “small market” team like Pittsburgh, and perhaps that’s why the Buccos should feel buyer’s remorse over the Chris Archer trade.
(Joel Whetzel, an Era sports reporter, can be reached at jmwwvu@gmail.com.)
