BRADENTON, Fla. — When Chris Archer returned to his hotel room in Houston after a puzzling start against the Astros on Aug. 1, 2017, his cell phone buzzed with a FaceTime call from an Astros player. Archer answered.



“Dude, you’ve got good shit,” the Astro told him. “You were just tipping.”



Archer had pitched into the seventh inning that night in a 6-4 Rays win, but on a few swings it seemed like the Astros hitters knew what pitch was coming. It turns out, they did. The player on FaceTime, whose name Archer won’t disclose, had his answer: He was tipping his pitches. It was fixable.



At the time, Archer bought that explanation. Now, he knows it was a lie. He wasn’t tipping. The Astros were stealing his signs and smacking a trash can.



“It’s pretty messed up,” Archer told The Athletic this week. “The whole thing is messed up.” Later, he added, “It sucks when you...