Archie Bradley doesn’t care when he throws, but he does care who he throws



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Role?

Archie Bradley didn’t want to talk about a void role.

On his first day as the new closest to the Phillies, all the bushy-bearded right-hander wanted to talk about was winning.

Oh, yeah, and throw it at JT Realmuto.

Even though the roster on the Phillies’ official website quickly named him as the closest to the team, Bradley reportedly didn’t hear any of this when his signing was announced during a video conference with reporters on Monday.

“I’m happy to be Phillie. I’m very excited, ”he says. (As proof, he was wearing a sweater with Ric Flair’s fiery face on the front.) “Any question about opportunities closer or untouched, I don’t care to answer today.

“I want to talk about winning. I’m talking about improving the Phillies and our chance to win a World Series. It will all work out, trust me. I want to take the ball in the ninth. I want to take the ball in all situations. “

The Philies had the worst enclosures in the majors in 2020, a fatal flaw that kept the team from winning a season-winning season for a ninth consecutive year and cost general manager Matt Klentak his job. Dave Dombrowski is the new head of baseball operations. He said he would be aggressive in trying to fix the enclosure. Bradley, who ranks eighth in innings (233 1/3) and 14th in ERA (2.82) among big league relievers over the past four seasons, is a big addition.

“I think we’ve improved a lot,” said Dombrowski, who previously added octane to the reliever box when trading for left-hander Jose Alvarado and right-hander Sam Coonrod.

Bradley signed a one-year, $ 6 million contract. He may be the Phillies’ biggest expense in the bullpen this winter, but he may not be the last.

“We can also continue to improve,” Dombrowski said. “We are open to future additions as we continue to speak in this free agent market, so we will continue to work on it.”

The Phils are also likely to remain active in the market for a back-end starting pitcher and, of course, they remain active in securing potential reunions with free agents Realmuto and Didi Gregorius.

Like Realmuto, Bradley is originally from Oklahoma.

“Great guy and I hope he’s a Phillie and I hope I can pitch him this year,” said Bradley, who tweeted on Monday that said #SignJT.

Bradley isn’t the first player to engage in politics on behalf of Realmuto. Bryce Harper has spent much of the summer looking for his favorite player. Dombrowski understands where they come from.

“I don’t blame them,” he said. “We feel the same as them. We are all on the same page. I think everyone knows we would love to bring him back. It’s not a secret.

Manager Joe Girardi has spoken on several occasions about his desire to reunite with Realmuto. The potential landing points for Realmuto have dried up and the other options in the capture market aren’t as good. Dombrowski said, “There are just too many good players on the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team to think about the transition. We think of winning. This is what we will try to do. Bringing back Realmuto would give the Phillies a much better chance of winning in 2021.

Bradley does that too.

He gives Girardi another option, with Hector Neris and others, behind the games. Neris has been up and down as a closer to the Phillies. It’s not hard to imagine him working in the seventh or eighth inning, helping bring the ball back to Bradley in the ninth. Bradley has the setup and closer experience. He completed 32 games for Arizona in 2019 and made 18 saves.

“He definitely has the ability to close,” said Girardi, who prefers a paddock with defined roles. “But one of the things that excites us about Archie is what he said earlier and what he told me three weeks ago: he just wants to pitch. We’re just going to let him calm down during spring training.

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