David Price is one player that has come up in trade rumors heading into the 2014 season and now teams like the NY Yankees, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Dodgers and Seattle Mariners could be interested in making a move for the former Cy Young winner and this comes after young pitcher Chris Archer signed a six year contract extension with the team and that has only fueled speculation that Price will be traded.
According to ESPN.com, the deal has two club option years and could be worth up to $43.75 million, while $25 million of that is guaranteed. Archer is another example of the Rays running a young pitcher they brought up into another one, as he came over in the Matt Garza deal with the Cubs. Archer went 9-7 with a 3.22 ERA last season and now the 25 year old joins Wil Meyers and Alex Cobb as the young stars of the team.
Archer is coming into his second full season with the Rays and this is another example of the team locking up a pitcher young to ensure that they keep him during these prime youth years and it likely means an extension later or a trade like what happened with James Shields. The Rays would love to keep Price and every young pitcher they bring up, but the money often doesn't work out and this is another chance for the team to keep a young pitcher in their organization through the beginning of his career and gives them a solid arm for the rotation with Alex Cobb and others leading into the next few years. The move has had many speculating that it is a precursor to the Rays trading David Price, which is something that has been speculated about all offseason and seems to be a near guarantee
Archer has been in the professional ranks since his teenage years and playing in the majors isn't something that is overwhelming for him and now he has the chance to do that with the Rays. The team doesn't have enough money to make mistakes with contracts and their payroll and this is a step in that direction, as it's a decent amount of money but not too much and it likely means Price will be gone. Price originally thought that he would be traded in the offseason and said as much to reporters, but with teams bidding on Masahiro Tanaka, no one stepped up for a deal and while the Seattle Mariners were interested, the Rays said they would not to a deal with the team without Taijuan Walker coming back.
The Mariners balked at that price for Price and the fact that Price stated he wouldn't sign an extension with the team basically killed any chance of him going to the Mariners. But that was the offseason and now that the team is 3-0, if they end up having a good year with Robinson Cano and King Felix, maybe Price has a change of heart and okays a deal to the Pacific Northwest. Price is getting into his prime, but he's also heading into that post-30 area and the Rays do not give long extensions to those players even though he is a Cy Young winner and Dirk Hayhurst said as much when he appeared on ESPN.com and many scouts agree that will be what goes down.
