The Tampa Bay Rays made the one-year deal with Chris Archer official on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Rays made the one-year, $6.5-million deal with Chris Archer official via a Zoom press conference with the media. To create room for Archer on the roster, the Rays traded right-hander Aaron Slegers to the Los Angeles Angels for a player to be named later or cash considerations. We wrote about the acquisition for the former and now current Ray last Wednesday.

Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) summed up the presser on the Rays Radio blog, and what follows are some of the highlights/quotables from the meeting.

On the reunion with the team Archer found the most success:

Seeing the things they’ve done the last two years, really, really excited me. The number one thing I wanted to do was play for a contender, play for a contender in a really strong division, and play somewhere that would give me the best opportunity to be me, and do me.

From a legacy standpoint, I want to be a part of a winning culture. I was part of a .500 culture whenever I was there. So being a part of the winning culture definitely was a big reason for my interest in going back to Tampa (Bay).

— Chris Archer

On the expectations for the right-hander in 2021:

I think there’s a real opportunity here for him to come back, just to pitch, just to compete. Just to be one of the group and not have any expectations for anything above and beyond that. And we’ll take it day by day and we’ll see where this thing goes.

— Erik Neander

Rays GM Erik Neander said the goal is for Archer to start every fifth day, although the door is definitely open for him to be as a bulk guy given his injury-laden last two seasons, as well as his numbers the third time through the order which, historically, have left a lot to be desired:

He’s made that very clear. That’s not anything that we had to pull out of him. It was a matter of him saying, hey look, if you need me to bulk if you want to put someone in front of me. Whatever can help this team win games, that’s what I’m about.

— Erik Neander

On Archer’s impact in the clubhouse:

We have a lot of young talent and young talent’s impressionable. You want to have good examples around them to influence them. We certainly feel like the veterans we brought in (Archer and Michael Wacha) do really help in that regard.

— Erik Neander

On being hungry for a successful season:

I want to be a part of the fun. I want to be a part of the magic. I’m really looking forward to getting in the locker room. I know what the goal is. When I was there in the past, we had different goals. But there’s only one goal, to win those two last games of the season. So, I can’t wait to be a part of that.

— Chris Archer

On shelving his sinker, which did not fare well in Pittsburgh, and including an improved changeup.

There will be zero two-seam fastballs attempted by me.

Mainly just get back to being myself, because I got away from that based off the injuries and not really using my stuff properly. I tried some new things and learned that they didn’t work and getting back to me, what made me great those years that I was in Tampa.

— Chris Archer

Noteworthiness

— The Rays recently signed right-hander Hunter Strickland to a minor league contract which included an invitation to Major League Spring Training.

Strickland is a four-team veteran having previously pitched with the Giants, Mariners, Nationals, and Mets across six big league seasons. He played a big role in San Francisco’s bullpen from 2014-17, combining for a 2.64 ERA/3.58 SIERA while posting a 3/1 K/BB across 180-2/3 innings.

He, however, was not nearly as effective the last three seasons. While his fastball velocity had not fallen off, averaging somewhere in the 95-96 mph range, he was blistered in 2019, when he tossed to a 5.55 ERA (a career-worst) with a 17.1% K% (also a career-worst) over 24-1/3 frames between the Mariners and Nationals. He lasted just 3-2/3 innings in 2020 after inking a minor league deal with the Mets

— Baseball Prospectus released the PECOTA projections on Tuesday, and the Rays are forecasted to be the second-best team in the AL East — resulting in another postseason berth. You can read the projections here (paid link), and we’ll dig into the numbers in the next few days.

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