How ironic that Chris Archer is back with the Tampa Bay Rays.
It didn’t take long for the Archer deadline deal in 2018 to go from one of the most heralded Pirates’ trades to one of the worst. Then, not too long after that, it became widely regarded as the worst trade, not just in Pirates’ history but in all of Pittsburgh sports.
The beauty of the Archer deal, at the time, was that then-Bucs GM Neal Huntington went completely out of character by giving up previously untouchable prospects to bring in a veteran pitcher to bolster a team that was within 6 games of first place and 3 games of a wild card.
Of course, it didn’t work. It turned out that July’s 11-game winning streak was a mirage. Two weeks after Archer’s arrival the Pirates lost 11 of 14 games to fall out of contention. Archer actually wasn’t completely horrible but he certainly was no savior as the club went 5-5 in his 10 starts.
Still, that would be okay because the Bucs did end up finishing over .500. Now they would have Archer for a full season to go along with Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams who were two of MLB’s best pitchers over the second half of 2018. Tyler Glasnow was no loss since the Pirates could never figure him out and if Austin Meadows panned out for the Rays that would simply be the cost of doing business.
You know the rest. Archer regressed and finally had to shut it down in August with a 3-9 record as the Pirates’ season was a 69-93 disaster, as Taillon and Williams were also hurt. He never did pitch in 2020, as the trade continued to get worse and worse – and there is no end in sight.
Meadows (still just 25) stepped right in and became Tampa Bay’s leadoff hitter and it turned out Glasnow was not a lost cause, after all.
The Rays let Glasnow throw with no real restrictions and he helped them to the post-season in 2019 than last year to the World Series. And there is a third former Pirate from that trade – flame-thrower Shane Baz, still just 21 – who is close to reaching the majors as well.
The ultimate irony would be if/when Baz comes in to save an Archer playoff win, maybe with a Meadows home run mixed in. That would make what is already the worst trade in Pirates history the worstest.
Just for fun, let’s relive some other really, really bad Pirates deals – in no particular order.
July 23, 2003 3B Aramis Ramirez and OF Kenny Lofton to the Cubs for RHP Matt Brubeck and IFs Jose Hernandez and Bobby Hill The 24-year old Ramirez was an emerging power hitter who had hit 34 HRs in 2001 but making 3 million dollars the Pirates made GM Dave Littlefield unload his salary. He would hit over 300 HRs for the Cubs and Brewers before coming back to help the 2015 Pirates, their last playoff team
July 31, 2007 OF Rajai Davis to San Francisco for RHP Matt Morris In what had to be Littlefield’s raised fist to management for making him trade Ramirez 3 years earlier, he picked up Morris a declining veteran on a $10 million dollar a year contract – which ran through 2008! Morris was subsequently released after going 0-4 the following April – by the new GM, Huntington
July 30, 2001 RHP Jason Schmidt and OF John VanderWal to San Francisco for RHP Ryan Vogelsong and OF Armando Rios Schmidt never gained traction as a potential ace with the Pirates but immediately blossomed with the Giants, making 3 All-Star teams, and finished 2nd in the ’03 NL Cy Young voting
December 12, 1984 LHP John Tudor to St. Louis for OF George Hendrick Others were involved but these were the two key players. Tudor went on to win 21 games with 10 shutouts for the World Series-bound Cardinals in 1985 while “Joggin’ George” was one of the most unpopular players on one of the worst teams in franchise history.
December 9, 2015 IF Neil Walker to the Mets for LHP Jon Neise Not that Walker has gone on to do great things after being traded but this deal signified the beginning of the end of all that the franchise had built throughout the Huntington/Hurdle era. The dismantling of a 98-win team had begun and Niese was a complete bust. Who knows how long it will take to build it again?
