Per Mark Feinsand of mlb.com, the Pirates have placed righty Chris Archer on the 10-Day IL with right thumb inflammation. Righty Michael Feliz has been recalled to take his place.
Archer, 30, is off to his typical enigmatic start this season, striking out batters at an elite rate but ultimately failing to prevent runs at an ace-level pace. Concerning also are a slight uptick in walks – to a career-worst 4.00 per nine thus far – and a 32% grounder rate that’s dipped well below his career average. Archer’s average fastball velocity has also dropped nearly two miles an hour, to a career-low 93.4 MPH, though his swinging strike percentage has remained mostly stable.
Acquired in a controversial midseason trade last season that sent Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow, and prospect Shane Baz to Tampa Bay, Archer has long been the rare starting pitcher – along with perhaps Jon Gray of the Rockies – whose ace-level peripherals consistently lag behind their actual run prevention. Pittsburgh obviously bet heavily on the trend coming to an end, but thus far the profile looks like more of the same.
It’s unclear who’ll be Archer’s replacement in the Pittsburgh rotation – the team’s depth in the area is frighteningly thin – but the injury seems relatively minor, the club has a couple off-days upcoming, and the rest of the unit – spearheaded by Archer’s statistical inverse in Trevor Williams – has so far been brilliant.
Keller?
no keller yet…liriano will start
This trade looking worse and worse by the day lmao
This trade looked awful the day Huntington made it and nothing has changed. In any non-disfunctional franchise, that trade would be a firable offense for a GM.
Hey Bobby Bo….your namesake took the Cheap Wilson’s to the cleaners. Speaking about fireable offense, how about the NY area National League fans being able to fire Mutt and Jeff, aka the Coupons. They have destroyed the integrity of pride in National League baseball for NY fans. Quite down little Mets fans. It’s time to start to retreat into your summer shell. You’ve had fun in your spring masturbation however May is here and reality is setting in, deGrom will not have a Cinderella season, “Thor” is a fantasy, and the team constructed by a former agent is filled with fluff.
It’s time to fire Mutt and Jeff. Stop supporting their team that is a farce. No more ticket purchases. Click away from SNY so that their viewership and advertising rates plummet. Embarrass them to sell them team for the future of NY NL baseball. Bring back the pride of the Giants and Dodgers who even when they didn’t win were respectable. The Mets are the laughing stock of MLB.
Hey squirty Mets fans….shhhhh…..
You’re so fried
I second that!
File under WT…!!??
I will third that.
No way you throw in Meadows maybe Luplow.
Clint thought highly of Luplow since he would often start him ahead of Meadows.
Last I looked Luplow was in minors, guess Clint has trouble judging talent or was told to do this by GM.
Either excuse means he also should go..
“This deal is getting worse all the time” (с)
P.s.: Just wait until the biggest Josh Bell fan comes here and says how badly we understand everything.
Syndergaard and his 3.09 career era are being lumped in with Gray and Archer?
Take out his two good years and what do you have 87?
A kid with long blonde hair in a pony tail that can life weights. Not much more, don’t defend the indefensible.
Syndergaard wasn’t even mentioned in this article. Gray is a fair comparison to Archer because this article mentioned the peripheral stats. Both Gray and Archer have similar career FIP, WHIP, H/9, HR/9, BB/9, and K/9
He was earlier……
Still can’t believe Pittsburgh gave up Glasgow and Meadows for Archer.
Last year, Glasgow was ugly in Pittsburgh and Glasgow had never shown any power till this season.
I also forgot about Shane Baz.
Baz has yet to show anything in pro ball. Hope for his sake he turns it around.
Glasgow had a better OPS+ the season they gave up Glasgow and Meadows (and Baz lol) for Archer. They already had a 4 ERA guy in Glasgow but they decided they wanted to get rid of theirs (who was still young, cheaper, more potential) for the one the Rays had.
Also, lots of prospects dont show power until they hit the bigs. Meadows was a top ranked prospect because of his hitting. The Pirates were big dumbs to make that trade and its not even hindsight 20/20. Only Pirates homers think the trade made sense at the time of its completion
In the words of my favorite and soon to be defunct Yankee blog, “Trading Gerritt Cole for *that*, and then turning around and trading *that* for Chris Archer, is pretty hilarious.”
Thumb inflammation on his pitching hand. Whoa common sense says that can’t be good. Duh right lol. I’m glad the Braves didn’t trade half the farm system to get him.
Glasnow 5-0 era 1.75 , meadows batting 350 until injury. Pirates as usual trade away good players for a pipe dream.