The San Diego Padres may be making some headway in their efforts to acquire Chris Archer from the Tampa Bay Rays.
According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Padres and Rays are still talking about an Archer trade, and there has been some progress. Nothing appears imminent, however, as Tampa Bay’s asking price remains high.
Sources: Rays and Padres continue to discuss Chris Archer, and one source says they've made progress. TB has shown a greater willingness than in past to deal him, teams say, but the price remains high, and SD is balking for now. As @jcrasnick said, other teams involved, too.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 28, 2018
The Padres may look like an odd choice, but given Archer’s contractual status — he’s under team control through 2021 — he makes sense even for a team in rebuilding mode. Of course, they are facing lots of competition for the right-hander, but even if they aren’t, there’s no real incentive to get the deal done now if they’d rather just wait for the offseason.
