The Philadelphia Phillies have taken a step toward fixing their historically bad bullpen. Philadelphia has agreed to a one-year contract, the team announced Monday. The contract is worth $6 million, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand.
Bradley, 28, went from the Diamondbacks to the Reds at the trade deadline last year. Cincinnati has been cutting costs all offseason and the team non-tendered Bradley in December rather than pay him a projected $4.7 million through arbitration. Similar to Kyle Schwarber, Bradley landed more than his arbitration projection as a free agent.
Since moving to the bullpen full-time in 2017, Bradley owns a 2.95 ERA with 259 strikeouts in 234 2/3 innings. He's spent time as a closer and a setup man, and his power stuff makes him a good candidate for a fireman role. Bradley has the bat-missing ability and moxie to enter a messy inning and strand runners.
Philadelphia's bullpen was not just the worst in baseball last season. It was one of the worst bullpens ever (obvious caveat is the short 60-game season). The Phillies' 7.06 bullpen ERA was the second worst in history, trailing only the 1930 Phillies bullpen (8.03 ERA). The Phillies added lefty Jose Alvarado in a three-team trade with the Rays and Dodgers earlier this month.
At the moment, manager Joe Girardi's relief crew looks something like this:
- Closer: RHP Hector Neris
- Setup: LHP Jose Alvarado, RHP Archie Bradley
- Middle: RHP Connor Brogdon, RHP Sam Coonrod, RHP Ian Hamilton, LHP Ranger Suarez
- Long: RHP David Hale, LHP Cole Irvin
- Depth: RHP Victor Arano, LHP Kyle Dohy
Even moreso than rebuilding the bullpen, the No. 1 priority for the Phillies this offseason is re-signing J.T. Realmuto, and that is still the case. The team needs to either re-sign or replace Realmuto, re-sign or replace Didi Gregorius, possibly add a starter, and continue working on that bullpen.
Bradley was not ranked among our top 60 free agents because he was non-tendered in December and not initially part of the free agent class.
