Make-or-break players of the 2022 MLB season featuring Chris Archer

Just one month into the 2022 MLB season, the pressure is already mounting on some underachieving teams and underperforming players to prove their worth in the big leagues. We are reaching the brink of the point of no return for some teams to turn it around and players to prove their paychecks. Here are the top make-or-break storylines outlining the dramatic 2022 MLB campaign.

Chris Archer

Chris Archer of the Minnesota Twins pitches in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals.

In many ways, the 2022 MLB season is do-or-die for the former 2013 MLB Rookie of the Year candidate. Following a string of three successful seasons early in his career in which he posted an ERA statline of 3.22/3.33/3.27 in successive seasons, Chris Archer has shown a steady decline in his production since 2015. Between 2016 and 2021 his best season featured a 4.02 ERA with a 36% increase in HRs allowed (30) in 2016. He surrendered only 19 in 2015. Though his walk numbers aren't in the top 10, he's had his struggles with control. Chris Archer's mediocre WHIP and walks ratio is a testament to his inability to be in the strikezone consistently.

"Brian McCann breaks Chris Archer." - @ Sporting News MLB

The tweet above from 2019 is a perfect example of his struggling command. Catcher Francisco Cervelli set his glove low and inside to Brian McCann as Archer delivered a pitch high out over the middle of the plate. McCann made no mistake in depositing it into the right field bleachers to give the Braves a 7-4 lead. It's the same inconsistencies we've grown accustomed to seeing throughout the course of Chris Archer's MLB career.

Upon establishing that he can still be effective, Archer must also prove that he can remain healthy. It was a troubling sight to see him walk sullenly off the mound on the brink of tears with a hip injury in this 2021 video.

"Chris Archer was fighting back tears as he walked off with an injury" - @ Talkin' Baseball

Though he is off to a much better start this season with a 2.94 ERA and a 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings, his walks ratio avg. per nine innings has been even more atrocious at a whopping 5.3. He has yet to pitch more than four innings in his starts, leading me to believe it's not sustainable as a starting pitcher. The older a pitcher gets, the more important command becomes as your pitch effectiveness declines with age. Command is the reason Randy Johnson was able to be successful well into his 40s and why it will be Archer's demise. However, I can certainly see Chris Archer thriving in a John Smoltz-like bullpen role. If the Twins are smart, at the first sign of trouble, they'll spare his health and his arm for a bullpen that could use some help.

Cody Bellinger

Cody Bellinger with the Los Angeles Dodgers

The 26-year-old Dodgers center fielder has a lot to prove to the baseball world after returning from a hairline fracture injury that took him out of the lineup for over a year. Cody Bellinger was batting a dismal .239 at the time of his injury in 2020. His numbers upon returning to the lineup in July 2021 were even more disturbing, posting an average of .165 while striking out a monumental 94 times through only 95 games played.

Bellinger has to prove that he can regain his 2019 MVP form that saw him post a .305 average with 47 HRs and 115 RBIs. For Bellinger, it's now or never. His fibula injury seems to have altered his approach and balance at the plate. In 2019, his hands are cocked back, his bat perpendicular to the dirt. In 2022, his hands are held higher, his bat parallel to the ground, causing more of a loop in his swing that is more apt to produce pop-ups.

"How is this Cody Bellinger ball not out" - @ JDodgersLA

Compare the first tweet from 2022 to the second from 2019 and you'll notice the discrepancies mentioned in his swing.

"Cody Bellinger's stance & swing was just unreal in 2019" - @ JDodgersLA

If Bellinger's hands were cocked in the first tweet as they were in the second, the initial swing against the rival San Francisco Giants would be a long home run. Against MLB-cailber pitching, a hitter's route to the ball means everything. It's the difference between a fly-out and a home run, a ground ball and a line drive, or a swing-through and contact. The good news is, with some minor adjustments, he could still very well be the same player he was in his 24-year-old MVP season.

Anthony Rendon

Anthony Rendon of the Los Angeles Angels hits a bases loaded three-run RBI double against the San Francisco Giants.

Anthony Rendon's production has dipped in each of the last two seasons. His .319 average in 2019 dived to .286 in 2020, and dipped even further to .240 in 2021. The 31-year-old Rendon will need to reestablish himself as a power-hitting threat this season if he wishes to remain at the heart of an MLB lineup. Is his dip in production a product of two pandemic-shortened seasons, or simply the decline of a player past his prime? To me, his current numbers seem to reveal a consistent indication that his best years are behind him. There's still a lot of time left in the 2022 MLB season to prove me wrong. One thing is certain, if the Los Angeles Angels are going to make some noise in the playoffs, they're going to need the third baseman to produce at a higher out than his current statline of .219/.344/.370 in 2022.

MLB Make or Break Honorable Mention

Justus Sheffield

The Seattle Mariners 25-year-old starting pitcher was expected to take large strides in his sophomore campaign in 2021. Instead of becoming a rotation anchor, he posted a cringeworthy 6.83 ERA while hitters batted .316 against him. He's still young, but needless to say, the quality of his MLB career depends on how well he bounces back from his sophomore slump.