Minnesota Twins DFA Candidate No. 1: Chris Archer
The most important player for the Twins to ditch by the All-Star break is Chris Archer. At first glance, Archer might have some positives. His 3.44 ERA is a good number, his 0.6 bWAR is solid, and his fastball velocity is up from last year. With that being said, it’s time to get him out of the rotation.
Archer’s peripheral numbers are horrible. His xERA of 5.03, FIP of 5.01, and xFIP of 4.96 are horrible. He’s walking batters at a worse rate than any other starter, and is strikeout rate is worse than any starter other than Devin Smeltzer.
Archer’s Baseball Savant page is a nightmare as well. He’s in the 45th percentile or worse of every single slider category. Only sixty percent of his pitches are strikes, and he can’t make it past the fifth inning in almost any start.
When your bullpen is a constant question mark, you need a starter who will get you later into games, or at the very least gives you a real fighting chance to win. That’s not what Archer does for this team.
Now there’s still a chance that Archer can be moved into a reliever role. He might have some success in later innings, because he’s pretty solid in his first run through the order but struggles after that. He just can’t keep working as a starter.