The Phillies made the signing of reliever Archie Bradley official on Monday morning, confirming the veteran righty signed a one-year deal reportedly worth $6 million.
It’s just the latest move from Dave Dombrowski as he attempts to fix one of the worst bullpens in major-league history after acquiring Jose Alvarado from the Tampa Bay Rays and San Coonrod from the San Francisco Giants.
Bradley, 28, has been one of the more consistent and reliable relievers in the game — though he is rarely in the conversation as one of the premier bullpen arms in the game.
Over the last four years, Bradley has appeared in 233.1 innings, eighth-most amongst big-league relievers during that span, with a 2.82 ERA (14th-best). All the while, he has sported a 1.197 WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched) with 9.9 strikeouts and 3.1 walks per nine innings.
He didn’t wait long to echo the sentiments of his new star teammate, Bryce Harper, and Phillies fans everywhere, tweeting “#SignJT,” referring to star free-agent catcher JT Realmuto, who spent the last two seasons with the club.
While retaining Realmuto is still considered one of the top priorities, it is expected that Dombrowski and the Phillies will look to continue adding reliever pieces to turn around a bullpen that became just the third unit in MLB history to sport a cumulative ERA of over 7.00.
As it stands, here is what the bullpen looks like:
- Long: RHP David Hale, LHP Cole Irvin
- Middle: RHP Connor Brogdon, RHP Sam Coonrod, RHP Ian Hamilton, LHP Ranger Suarez
- Setup: LHP Jose Alvarado, RHP Archie Bradley
- Closer: RHP Hector Neris
- Depth: RHP Victor Arano, LHP Kyle Dohy
Amongst other necessary needs for the Phillies outside the bullpen and Realmuto is finding depth in the starting rotation behind Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler. There is also question marks surrounding the situation at shortstop. Didi Gregorius is testing the free-agency waters and the Phillies will have to either re-sign him or replace him.
According to Spotrac, the Phillies have approximately $57.3 million in cap space under the luxury tax threshold, but it remains to be seen how much of that they’ll spend after losing $145 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic last season.
