Twins sign Chris Archer, outright Lewis Thorpe

[Squirrel]

Well, I guess this is about all that’s left …

[Otto von Ballpark]

1 year, $2.75 mil, plus $9.5 mil in incentives.

Then a $750k buyout or a $10 mil mutual option for a 2nd year.

So, $3.5 mil guaranteed.

[Vanimal46]

 

[Twodogs]

Does he have anything left?  I mean what happened last year? He only threw like 19 innings.

[Azviking101]

I do like bringing in Archer. Hit 93 last year with 87-89 slider. Slider looked just like it did 5 years ago which was nice.

My issue is that Bundy and Archer are 2/5 of the rotation. What happens when something assuredly goes wrong?

[a-wan]

Cheapskate Pohlads, should have signed Max Scherzer.

[mnfireman]

?‍♂️

[PseudoSABR]

8 minutes ago, a-wan said:

Cheapskate Pohlads, should have signed Max Scherzer.

He's joking before anyone tries to murder him.

[PseudoSABR]

This is fine.  Another Bundy like deal. It buys time for our top prospects at worst (depending the results), and at best it turns into a great one year deal on the relative cheap.

I think this demonstrates once again, that the Twins FO really believes in the upcoming young arms (or their capacity to rebuild trade value), a dangerous proposition which this move helps guards against for the pursuit of 2022 playoffs.

[Azviking101]

Lewis Thorpe is gone for good.

Finally. Only reason he lasted so long was because he's a southpaw. Would have been cut outright years ago otherwise.

[PseudoSABR]

3 minutes ago, Azviking101 said:

Lewis Thorpe is gone for good.

Finally. Only reason he lasted so long was because he's a southpaw. Would have been cut outright years ago otherwise.

There's something to be said about him transitioning to the bullpen years ago. Good luck Thorpe! He'll get a chance somewhere.

[a-wan]

Just now, PseudoSABR said:

There's something to be said about him transitioning to the bullpen years ago. Good luck Thorpe! He'll get a chance somewhere.

I'd rather have ditched Stashak, than a living, breathing left handed pitcher.  But so long to that awful quasi-mullet.

[ScottyB]

18 minutes ago, Azviking101 said:

Lewis Thorpe is gone for good.

Finally. Only reason he lasted so long was because he's a southpaw. Would have been cut outright years ago otherwise.

With all of Thorpe’s injuries, his velocity was way down (and it wasn’t that great to start). With no options I assumed they would either DFA or sneak him through on waivers. Smeltzer has had a pretty good spring, so I assumed he’d take Thorpe’s place on the 28 man (and 40) roster.
I think the addition of Archer means we might lose another body on the 40 man.  (i.e., does Rooker make the team, he’s out of options as well).

[Otto von Ballpark]

29 minutes ago, Azviking101 said:

Lewis Thorpe is gone for good.

 

25 minutes ago, PseudoSABR said:

Good luck Thorpe! He'll get a chance somewhere.

Actually Thorpe was just outrighted, which means he already cleared waivers and he's just going to St. Paul, off the 40-man but still in the Twins org.

[Thegrin]

I've been hoping for this move. I'd like to see how Archer does with  Wes Johnson & company coaching him. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Here's the "official tweet" on Thorpe:

[LA VIkes Fan]

Interesting that Thorpe cleared waivers.... Is it possible that we all overestimated the value of one of our prospects again? Glad we were able to keep him in the organization. Seems like there has to be a MLB pitcher in there some where. 

[Mike Sixel]

32 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Interesting that Thorpe cleared waivers.... Is it possible that we all overestimated the value of one of our prospects again? Glad we were able to keep him in the organization. Seems like there has to be a MLB pitcher in there some where. 

Did anyone estimate him as good? 

I like the signing. Buys time and innings....(since there is no good FA pitcher left).

[baul0010]

1 hour ago, Twodogs said:

Does he have anything left?  I mean what happened last year? He only threw like 19 innings.

No. No he does not have anything left.  It's too bad the F.O. is putting together a very good lineup.... But no starting pitching.  I hope we aren't looking back after this year is finished wondering what could have been.  

Hopefully we are doing enough by the trade deadline to add a couple pitchers.  

[RedneckRay]

3 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Interesting that Thorpe cleared waivers.... Is it possible that we all overestimated the value of one of our prospects again? Glad we were able to keep him in the organization. Seems like there has to be a MLB pitcher in there some where. 

I don’t think many were overestimating his value at all. At least for me, I’ve never really liked him. Even when he was healthy he topped out at ~90, with decent to below average off speed stuff which doesn’t play up out of the bullpen. Now with the injuries/dead arm, he tops out at 86 with no movement, which is a recipe for disaster. 

[twins_89]

This move seems like a signal that the team is going to go all in on the pitching pipeline. I guess we'll finally get to see if Falvey and Levine really can build most of the rotation through scouting and development (something that hasn't yet yielded much proven talent at the major league level).

[LVTwinsfan]

I remember thinking, it would be nice if the Twins could get a pitcher like Archer. I think that was about 5 years ago, so we’ll see

[shortround81]

Hopefully Thorpe is taking it in stride. I remember when he got sent to Triple A after he needed some time off to reset mentally during Spring Training, he tweeted something like, "What a joke" and then deleted it

[Obsvr]

2 minutes ago, shortround81 said:

Hopefully Thorpe is taking it in stride. I remember when he got sent to Triple A after he needed some time off to reset mentally during Spring Training, he tweeted something like, "What a joke" and then deleted it

Joke's on him...he's been brutal this spring.

[Cap'n Piranha]

10 hours ago, RedneckRay said:

I don’t think many were overestimating his value at all. At least for me, I’ve never really liked him. Even when he was healthy he topped out at ~90, with decent to below average off speed stuff which doesn’t play up out of the bullpen. Now with the injuries/dead arm, he tops out at 86 with no movement, which is a recipe for disaster. 

Not even close to true.  Archer topped out at 96 on his fastball in 2015, but was never below 94 until 2021.  5 of his 9 seasons in the majors saw his fastball velocity above 95.  Even last year, when he was just coming back from TOS and had myriad other health issues, he still was at 92.4, a far cry from your claim of 86.  His slider has also held up pretty well, sitting at 87.5 last year (his career high was 89), which is harder than he threw it in 2012-2014.  Given that his slider and changeup have been historically his best pitches, and he throws them more than 50% of the time, fastball velocity is not as important--indeed, his fastball has been a negative pitch for him every year since 2016, which includes two years when it was over 95, and two more over 94.  I imagine the Twins will have him throwing changes and sliders 60-70% of the time, and using the fastball as an ambush or get-me-over pitch.

 

[Unwinder]

I wonder if the plan is still to transition Thorpe to a relief role now in St. Paul.

[East Coast Twin]

44 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Not even close to true.  Archer topped out at 96 on his fastball in 2015, but was never below 94 until 2021.  5 of his 9 seasons in the majors saw his fastball velocity above 95.  Even last year, when he was just coming back from TOS and had myriad other health issues, he still was at 92.4, a far cry from your claim of 86.  His slider has also held up pretty well, sitting at 87.5 last year (his career high was 89), which is harder than he threw it in 2012-2014.  Given that his slider and changeup have been historically his best pitches, and he throws them more than 50% of the time, fastball velocity is not as important--indeed, his fastball has been a negative pitch for him every year since 2016, which includes two years when it was over 95, and two more over 94.  I imagine the Twins will have him throwing changes and sliders 60-70% of the time, and using the fastball as an ambush or get-me-over pitch.

 

He was talking about overestimating Thorpe's value, not Archer's.

[Tjwalsh65]

I think he was referring to Thorpe.

[Musk21]

6 hours ago, shortround81 said:

Hopefully Thorpe is taking it in stride. I remember when he got sent to Triple A after he needed some time off to reset mentally during Spring Training, he tweeted something like, "What a joke" and then deleted it

He's not too thrilled about it. There were multiple retweets from him last night including one that said "Who gets more slaps to the face, Chris Rock or Lewis Thorpe?"  He responded with "Lewis."

[Cap'n Piranha]

3 hours ago, East Coast Twin said:

He was talking about overestimating Thorpe's value, not Archer's.

 

3 hours ago, Tjwalsh65 said:

I think he was referring to Thorpe.

Ah.  Confusion on my part