25 Archie Bradley SP

Bradley agreed to a one-year contract with the Diamondbacks on Friday, avoiding arbitration.

Bradley appears to have the best shot at locker up the closer's role for the upcoming 2019 season, and he'll shift his focus to winning that job after evading the arbitration process. He made 76 relief appearances for the Diamondbacks a year ago, posting a 3.64 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 75 punchouts across 71.2 frames.

Manager Torey Lovullo said he's leaning towards using Bradley as his closer in 2019, Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reports.

With Brad Boxberger hitting the open market, Bradley appears to be the leading candidate to take over as the team's primary closer heading into 2019. The 26-year-old has spent the previous two seasons in a multi-inning relief role, compiling a combined 2.68 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 154:41 K:BB across 144.2 innings during that stretch. With Yoshihisa Hirano still looming in the team's bullpen -- coupled with Bradley's ability to pitch multiple innings -- the Diamondbacks could still wind up using the right-hander in a more versatile back-end role.

Bradley took the loss in relief Sunday against the Giants after giving up a run and striking out two over 1.1 innings.

Bradley entered a 2-2 contest in the top of the seventh inning and struck out Andrew McCutchen to record the final out of the frame. The right-hander came back out for the eighth and served up a one-out solo shot to Evan Longoria, which held up as the difference in the one-run game. The loss evened Bradley's season record at 3-3, but that's of little consequence to his fantasy owners, who roster the 25-year-old mainly for the impact he provides in holds and the ratio categories.

Bradley threw 1.1 perfect innings and struck out three en route to his 27th hold of the season in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Cubs.

Bradley and closer Brad Boxberger were dominant while polishing off the win for the Diamondbacks, striking out six of the Cubs' final seven batters. It was a strong bounce-back effort for Bradley after he was tagged for a season-high six runs while retiring just two hitters in his last appearance Friday against the Rockies.

Bradley retired just two of eight batters faced in Friday's 11-10 loss to the Rockies and surrendered six runs on three hits and three walks.

Bradley notched two strikeouts on the evening, but that's hardly any consolation for fantasy owners who kept him in the lineup for ratio stabilization. Though the Diamondbacks typically lean on Bradley as their eighth-inning man, manager Torey Lovullo chose to bring in the relief ace in the seventh Friday, a decision that proved to be costly. Bradley threw only 16 of his 30 pitches for strikes and saw an 8-5 lead turn into an 11-8 deficit after Raimel Tapia took him deep for a pinch-hit grand slam to complete the Rockies' six-run inning. It was the second loss of the season for Bradley, who saw his ERA jump from 1.97 to 3.11 after the implosion.