Some thoughts about Chris Archer as Day 2 of the winter meetings gets underway.
The Twins definitely have interest in the righthander - like they do in a lot of pitchers at this point. Archer, more than most of them, looks to be an excellent fit for the Twins rotation.
He can strike out batters - at least 10.4 per nine innings over the last three seasons.
He's durable -- throwing more than 200 innings in each of the last three seasons, and 194 the year before that.
You can cringe at his 51-63 career record and that he's posted an ERA over 4.00 three straight years. But his FIP, which rates pitchers based on the things they control, has been under 4.00 over the same period.
Twins fans will remember that May 26 game at Target Field when he held the Twins to two earned runs over 7.2 innings and struck out 11.
Rumblings on Monday had the Rays thinking about trading their established players in the wake of the Yankees adding Giancarlo Stanton, plus the expected corresponding move(s) by the Red Sox. Other AL East teams are being left behind, making a rebuild an option.
I've been told the Twins have been aggressive in their search for pitching help. But there are no results to support that. Crafting a deal to land Archer would be the type of move that would fire up the Twin Cities.
But it will take a package of prospects in order to land Archer. And that's if the Rays are serious about moving him.
And the potential suitors already are lining up.
Lots of meetings are scheduled for today, and I'm not talking about teams and agents. There are manager's meetings, clubhouse manager's meetings and even the BBWAA had a meeting this morning,
Congrats to longtime Akron writer Sheldon Ocker for being named the J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner. He will be inducted into the writer's wing of the Hall of Fame. The Strib's Patrick Reusse was a finalist this year. Hopefully, he'll get in soon.
