One of the absolute biggest strengths of the Tampa Bay Rays organization is their ability to develop young pitching.
As Tampa Bay prepares to move on into life without David Price, they have locked up a young arm that could be the future ace of the staff. Chris Archer agreed to a six-year contract extension with the Rays on Wednesday, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. The deal is going to buy out all of Archer’s pre-arbitration and arbitration years and also contains two club options that could extend the deal to eight years.
The financial terms of Archer’s contract are a little tricky to understand. The 25-year old must reach Super Two status in order for the full amount of the contract to be realized. Under normal conditions, a player goes to arbitration hearings three times in their career. A player is considered to be “Super Two” arbitration eligible when he a) accrues between two and three years of MLB Service Time and b) is ranked in the top 22% of all two-year players. Essentially, “Super Two” arbitration players get an extra year of arbitration and salary negotiation. For more on arbitration, click here. Right now, Archer has 0 years, 156 days of MLB Service Time (0.156).
Last season, in his first full year with the Major League club, Archer went 9-7 over 23 starts, with a 3.22 ERA with 101 strikeouts, compared to 38 walks. He pitched in 128.2 innings and finished third in the Rookie of the Year vote. With Archer, the Rays now have control of three young starting pitchers, including Matt Moore and Jake Odorizzi.