Bad news for Chris Archer and the Pittsburgh Pirates: the team just announced that Archer has been shut down until 2021 after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery.
Thoracic outlet surgery, which has become more common in baseball in recent years, is nothing approaching routine. Lots of pitchers have never come back from it or have not come back in anything approaching their previous form.
Archer was shut down late in the 2019 season due to shoulder discomfort. This after posting a 3-9 record in 23 starts and a 5.19 ERA, in 119.2 innings pitched. He pitched in two innings during spring training.
Archer, who originally came up and starred for the Tampa Bay Rays, was traded to the Pirates in the summer of 2018 for Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows, and a player to be named later who ended up being minor leaguer Shane Baz. That was already a trade that heavily-favored the Rays. Now it looks even worse for the Pirates in hindsight.