NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Chris Archer stood at the back of the lobby inside the sprawling Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center on Monday morning, clutching a leather binder and an ice coffee, eager to start his first official event on the job.
Not too long ago, the longtime MLB pitcher would’ve eschewed the hustle and bustle of a place like this for conditioning or offseason mound work. But after spending the 2023 season taking business classes at Harvard and learning plenty about the inner-workings of college baseball, Archer has boomeranged back here: to MLB’s annual Winter Meetings, as he’s starting a job with the Dodgers as an assistant in their baseball operations department.
The position will allow Archer — who pitched for the Pirates in 2018 and ’19 was lost for 2020 with an injury — to further calibrate his post-playing goals.
“It’s giving me an opportunity to learn and help some younger players, too,” Archer told the Post-Gazette. “Player development, scouting, analytics, roster construction, draft, trade ... everything I can possibly learn from that perspective so that I can make a decision whether I want to go the player development or front office route.”
It obviously didn’t go terribly well with Archer in Pittsburgh. He’s aware. It bugs him, too. But it certainly wasn’t for lack of talent or effort. Heavy workloads in Tampa caught up with Archer, and his body unfortunately did not cooperate.
In November 2018, Archer had surgeries on his left hip and to repair a bilateral hernia. After making 23 starts in 2019, the next June Archer had surgery to relieve symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome, a scary situation that threatened the right-hander’s career at the time.
“I actually just ran into [former Pirates manager] Clint [Hurdle],” Archer said. “He was like, ‘All those years that you were a workhorse in the AL East caught up to you at one time.’ I was like, ‘Damn, that is what happened.’
“I took pride in taking the ball, even when I didn’t feel great. Maybe if I would have pumped the brakes here and there ... I don’t know. But I emptied the tank. I’m content now. In the moment, when it wasn’t going great, I was not happy. But in hindsight, I’m super content and grateful for the opportunities that I got.”
The trade remains a sore spot for all involved. Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow blossomed into All-Stars, and Shane Baz was inextricably the player to be named later. It set the Pirates back. Archer hates that he never got to deliver much to them.
Despite making a pair of All-Star teams with the Rays — not to mention producing three straight seasons with 200-plus innings and strikeouts — Archer was not his best self in Pittsburgh. In 33 starts across two seasons, Archer went 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA, nearly a run worse than his career mark (3.93).
Archer struck out 10.6 batters per nine innings, which was solid, but he also experienced spikes in home runs and walks, falling victim to the Pirates’ sinker obsession at the time and also pitching through more pain and discomfort than he would have liked.
“I don’t live life with regrets, but there’s nobody who’s more disappointed with my time there than me,” Archer said. “We had a good nucleus. The starting pitchers we had were pretty damn good.”
After regaining a decent amount of his health, Archer made six starts for the Rays in 2021 and 25 for the Twins the following season. There were flashes, sure. But consistency and health remained elusive, and Archer didn’t pitch anywhere last season.
Archer actually finished his MLB career with 9 years, 156 days of service time, which is a little more than two weeks shy of the vaunted 10 years, guaranteeing a full pension. No regrets, Archer insisted.
“In any aspect of life, you have a goal, and if you put absolutely everything you can into achieving that goal, even if you come up a little bit short, it’s OK. You have to be content,” Archer said. “Especially with sports, there’s a small window. I played baseball professionally for 17 years. I did everything I knew at the time. What more could I ask for?”
The Dodgers link is a natural one for Archer, considering his previous relationship with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. He also played with the club’s general manager, Brandon Gomes.
Archer’s smarts, curious mind and personality should serve him well.
How Archer described it is basically a blank slate. If he wants to go to Japan and work alongside a scout, writing his own report on a pitcher, he can. The Dodgers also want him to make a trip to their African academy and offer input.
It’s all designed for Archer to acquire knowledge and counter with his experience and thoughtful lens on the game.
“I think they’re one of the better organizations in baseball,” Archer said. “Most importantly, there’s a trust with the front office. If they say, ‘Chris, you have complete flexibility to check out whatever you want to check out in the organization,’ I believe them. Whereas with somebody maybe I didn’t have as good of a relationship with, who knows if that would be true.
“It’s a cool opportunity to learn. I’ve kind of always been about that.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 4, 2023, 5:29 p.m.
Updated: December 5, 2023, 2:51 a.m.
