Tampa Bay Rays’ Top 5 Prospects of 2011- How They Worked Out

As we speak, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best farm system in all of baseball. We are taking a look back at how the top five prospects from 2011 have turned out.

It’s a great time of year to look back on Tampa Bay Rays’ prospects of the past. Here are the top five prospects (according to MLB Pipeline) prior to the 2011 season.

It’s always intriguing to see how many players ended up a success and how many ended up fading out of our memories. We start with a former first-round draft pick.

5. Josh Sale

Major League Career: N/A

Major League rWAR: N/A

Josh Sale was drafted in the first round by the Rays in the 2010 Draft. MLB.com had him rated as their number five prospect heading into his first professional season at age nineteen. While he struggled in rookie ball, he posted a .855 OPS in 2012 at A-Bowling Green in 2012.

Sale would miss the following two seasons due to suspensions. In August of 2012, he was suspended 50 games for testing positive for methamphetamines.

The team then suspended him in May of 2013 for conduct detrimental to the team after he made a Facebook post about being thrown out of a strip club for throwing change at strippers.

At 22-years-old, and after missing the previous two seasons, the hope that he could still develop into a player worthy of a first-round pick had evaporated.

In August of that year, he would earn a second suspension for testing positive for a drug of abuse.

After the season, Sale saw his impressive streak of being suspended in three consecutive seasons come to an end as the Rays released him.

Conclusion

It’s an unfortunate journey for a talented player. Parallels were drawn between Sale and Josh Hamilton, but Sale never found his way back to a major league organization.

4. Alex Torres

Major League Career: 4 Years (2 years w/ Rays)

Major League rWAR: 2.0 (2.0 w/ Rays)

Alex Torres was traded by the Angels to the Rays along with Sean Rodriguez in exchange for Scott Kazmir.

Torres was a successful starter in the minors for the Rays, but when he was called up in 2013, he came out of the bullpen. He was so effective, they opted to keep him there.

Torres pitched in 58 innings for the Rays and finished his Rays’ career with a 1.71 ERA.

Prior to the 2014 season, the Rays traded Torres to the Padres with Jesse Hahn in exchange for Matt Lollis, Maxx Tissenbaum, Matt Andries, Brad Boxberger, and Logan Forsythe.

Torres posted a 3.33 ERA in 54 innings with the Padres. The following off-season the Padres sent him to the Mets where he posted another solid season with a 3.15 ERA, however his walks were out of control.

Despite posting a career ERA of 2.68, he never had the full trust of a team because he gave out more free passes than WCW in the early 1990s.

With the Rays he walked a palatable 3.7 batters per nine, with the Padres it rose to 5.5 and in his final year with the Mets, it ballooned to 6.8.

The end came swiftly for Torres. He was designated for assignment in August of 2015.

Torres had one more shot with the Braves in the spring of 2016, but he did not make the team.

Conclusion

Torres was a starting-pitching prospect that didn’t pan out due to control issues. He did have a solid major league career, and like most players on this list, you’ll notice that his best years were with the Rays.

He had a very effective 2013 and finished his Rays’ tenure with a 1.91 ERA and 3.7 walks per nine. The Rays were quick to flip him after one full season. The Padres were quick to do the same. He didn’t even make it a full season with the Mets. Control issues did him in.

3. Chris Archer

Major League Career: 8 Years (Parts of 7 years w/ Rays)

Major League rWAR: 13.8 (12.6 w/ Rays)

Archer was acquired in a trade that sent Matt Garza, Fernando Perez, and Jason Bartlett from the Rays to the Cubs in exchange for Chris Archer, Robinson Chirinos, Sam Fuld, Brandon Guyer, and Hak-Ju Lee.

Archer turned out to be the prized piece in the deal. At the age of 24, Archer took the league by storm, posting a 3.22 ERA in 23 starts for the 2013 Rays.

In 2014, he blossomed into a full-blown ace, making 32 starts and posting a 3.33 ERA. He pitched in 194.2 innings, struck out eight batters per nine innings, and only walked 3.3 per nine.

In 2015 he led baseball in games started with thirty-four. He pitched in 212.0 innings and continued to become an even better pitcher. Archer made his first All-Star game, lowered his walks per nine to 2.8 and increased his strikeouts per nine to 10.7. He finished 2015 with a 3.23 ERA.

Between 2013 and 2015 Archer had a combined ERA of 3.26 across the three seasons. 2015 would be the final season Archer had an ERA under four.

It’s not that he was bad in 2016, but he posted a career-high in ERA with a 4.02 over 201.1 innings. The following year, he led the league in games started again, with thirty-four. He once again ended up a hair above four with his ERA at a 4.07. He did make his second All-Star appearance in 2017.

His peripherals still looked good, but he was giving up more homers. During his stellar first three full seasons, he gave up less than one homer per inning.

In 2016 he gave up 1.3 homers per nine, or a full 0.5 homers per nine innings than the previous year. Archer has never had a season with a HR/9 below 1.0 since then.

Last season Archer’s homers per nine reached an all-time high of 1.9 with the Pirates.

As good as Archer was for the Rays, they inevitably cashed in on his success. For all of the value and production the Rays got out of the Matt Garza deal that brought Archer to the Rays, they got even more when they traded Chris Archer.

In 2018, the Rays said good-bye to their former-ace and swapped him for Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow, and Shane Baz.

Conclusion

For his career with the Rays, he posted a 3.69 ERA, had a run of three years where he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball and made two All-Star appearances. In the end, he was flipped for two players who quickly became superstars and a third who is rapidly working his way through the minor leagues.

Chris Archer was a huge success as the Rays’ third-best prospect of 2011.

1. Matt Moore

Major League Career: 9 years (6 w/ Rays)

Career rWAR: 5.6 (5.4 w/ Rays)

Matt Moore was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the eight-round of the 2007 Draft.

Matt Moore has played for four different Major League franchises. He has compiled a career 4.51 ERA with a 1.402 WHIP.

His lone All-Star appearance came with the Rays in 2013 when he posted a 3.29 REA over 150.1 innings pitched.

After his 17-4 All-Star season, it appeared Ace-hood was on the horizon for the 24-year-old lefty. Just two games into 2014 Moore strained his UCL and went under the knife with Tommy John. He has not had a season with an ERA below 4.08 and his total ERA since Tommy John surgery is 5.13.

He was never the same.

Moore played with the Rays for six seasons and posted a total 3.88 ERA during his tenure in Tampa. It’s been a different story everywhere else.

Moore was traded to the San Francisco Giants midway through the 2016 season. At the time of the trade, he had a 4.08 ERA through 21 games with the Rays. In the 12 games he pitched for the Giants, he also posted a 4.08 ERA.

In the two full seasons following the trade, Matt Moore went 9-23 with a 5.99 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP.

Conclusion

Matt Moore was a very good pitcher for the Rays over parts of six seasons. In typical Rays’ fashion, they were able to flip him for more players before the wheels fell off. In the deal with the Giants, they received Matt Duffy, Michael Santos, and Lucius Fox.

Duffy was a popular player for the Rays but unfortunately, his time in Tampa was marked by injuries.

Santos reached AA-Montgomery last season.

Baseball Prospectus ranked Lucius Fox inside their Top 100 Prospects prior to last season and the Rays’ added him to the 40-man roster heading into 2020.

Matt Moore has to be considered a success. Granted, the Tommy John surgery changed things for him, but talent-wise, he proved he could be a top-flight pitcher in the major leagues. He was a top-flight pitcher for the Rays. His career ERA of 3.88 while wearing a Rays uniform is well above-average.

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