Eight years later, the Pirates are still feeling the sting of the Chris Archer trade - and Tuesday night at Tropicana Field made that impossible to ignore.
Former Pittsburgh right-handers Chris Archer and Tyler Glasnow were both on hand for Game 4 of the World Series between the Rays and Brewers, part of a group of ex-Tampa Bay players supporting their old club. For Pirates fans, it was a brutal little reminder of how that 2018 deadline deal keeps echoing.
Pittsburgh sent Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz to Tampa Bay for Archer, hoping the veteran starter would help push them toward a playoff run. It never worked out that way.
Archer went 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 33 starts over two seasons with the Pirates before leaving for Tampa Bay in free agency. Glasnow, meanwhile, developed into a frontline starter with the Rays. Tampa Bay later traded Glasnow to the Dodgers in December 2023, getting Ryan Pepiot and Jonny DeLuca back.
And DeLuca wound up becoming a key figure in Tuesday’s thriller. With Tampa Bay down 3-2 in the bottom of the 12th and staring at elimination, he delivered a tying RBI single. Ben Williamson followed with the walk-off hit, and the Rays escaped with a 4-3 win to force Game 5.
Meanwhile, the Pirates still haven’t played a postseason game since the Archer trade.
The bigger story, though, is what Tampa Bay has done with the deal long after the initial return. The Rays didn’t just land the better end of the trade; they kept turning that value into more value.
When Glasnow became too expensive for their payroll model, they moved him for younger, controllable pieces instead of letting his worth vanish. DeLuca is helping them now, and Pepiot has given their pitching staff another option.
That’s very much the Rays’ way. They get talented players, develop them, squeeze every bit of production out of them, and then turn them into more assets when the moment calls for it.
This World Series roster is built on that kind of machine. Seventeen of Tampa Bay’s 26 players were acquired via trade, and those players accounted for 31.6 WAR in the regular season. No other playoff team added more than 14 players through trades.
Pittsburgh, under Ben Cherington, has taken a different route, stockpiling young talent through the draft and trades in hopes that it grows into a real contender. The Pirates have shown they’re willing to swing big, too. Their December 2025 trade with Tampa Bay brought in Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery, and all three became major pieces in Pittsburgh’s first winning season since 2018.
But there’s a difference between collecting talent and actually turning it into a competitive edge.
The Pirates do have an enviable young core, led by Paul Skenes and Konnor Griffin. The next step is figuring out how to build around it without wasting another wave of promising players. Tampa Bay’s model shows the tightrope clearly: know when to deal, know when to add, and never confuse a strong farm system with the finished product.
The Archer trade remains the clearest warning of what happens when that balance gets away from you.
In Other News...
Pirates Could Face A New October Problem Under MLB's Proposal
Major League Baseball is floating another round of postseason changes, and for a Pirates club that has tried to build its way back into the picture with a stronger pitching staff, the timing is worth watching. Pittsburghs 2026 winning season showed what a deeper rotation and improved run prevention can mean over six months, but any new playoff structure would put a different kind of pressure on how the roster is built, especially when the margins get thinner in October.
The proposal is still part of collective bargaining talks and nothing is final yet, but the direction of the discussion matters for a team like the Pirates. A format that could alter opponent selection in the first round, then stretch a later series even longer, would reward depth and flexibility in ways that expose any bullpen shortfall. For Pittsburgh, the question is not just whether it can get back to the postseason, but whether it would be equipped for whatever version of October baseball arrives next. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Rotation Suddenly Hinges On Mitch Kellers Long Road Back
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The club is expecting Keller to resume throwing late in the offseason and eventually rejoin the rotation, though the path back is the story now. Young outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez also finished the year on the injured list with a hamstring strain, but he says he is healthy and plans to sharpen up in the Dominican Winter League before the next season begins. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Already Face A Brandon Lowe Question They May Not Like
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Gleyber Torres has surfaced as one possible name in the free-agent market, but the bigger issue may be whether the Pirates want to spend elsewhere or keep a path open for what they already have in house. If Lowe departs, Nick Gonzales would be the internal fallback, leaving Pittsburgh with a choice between paying for another veteran bat or trusting its own depth to handle the position. [Read more 🡒]