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Archer believes Rays' 4-man rotation will be 'hard to sustain'

Jonathan Dyer / USA TODAY Sports

Although Chris Archer may be open to the experiment, the franchise ace acknowledged the potential difficulties associated with the Tampa Bay Rays opening the season with a four-man rotation.

"The playoffs make it appear to be sexy, but over the course of 162, it's hard to sustain," Archer told Travis Sawchik of Fangraphs.

The Rays will start Archer on Opening Day against the Boston Red Sox and then follow with Blake Snell, a bullpen day, Nathan Eovaldi, and Jake Faria. With eight off days over the first two months of the season, the Rays hope to roll with the four-man rotation while piecing together a group of arms for the bullpen day when needed.

Deploying a four-man rotation will only be successful if the starters at the front of the group - Archer and Snell - can pitch deep into games this year. It shouldn't be an issue for Archer, who has thrown at least 200 innings in each of the last three seasons, but Snell has much less experience. The 25-year-old tossed 173 combined innings at all levels in 2017 - the most of his career. Eovaldi, meanwhile, is coming off Tommy John surgery, so his workload will be limited, while Faria has 86 2/3 major-league innings under his belt.

The Rays spent most of the winter losing talent. Alex Cobb, Logan Morrison, Lucas Duda, and Tommy Hunter were all lost via free agency - though Cobb remains unsigned - while Corey Dickerson, Steven Souza Jr., Jake Odorizzi, and Evan Longoria were traded away.

Having spent the last six seasons in Tampa Bay, Archer has never been on a team with a payroll eclipsing $80 million, so he understands that clubs with limited financial resources need to sometimes be unconventional.

"I think smaller-market teams do it if they can, because they don't have as much (payroll) flexibility," Archer said. "They are just trying to find ways to maximize whatever their budget is for that year. Four guys on the shuttle making $500,000 each - that's better than one guy making $2 million ... or one guy making $10 million."

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