Veteran reliever Archie Bradley is signing with the Los Angeles Angels on a one-year, $3.75 million deal, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Thursday.
It’s a “prove me” deal for the veteran right-hander, who has experienced an inconsistent career in terms of dependability out of the bullpen. During one year with the Philadelphia Phillies last season — a deal the team hoped would improve their league-worst bullpen — the 29-year-old posted a 3.71 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 51.0 innings of work while dealing with oblique issues.
This after he put up a 2.95 ERA in 18.1 innings with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
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Bradley spent the first five full seasons of his career in Arizona, where he possessed a 3.96 ERA in 393.2 innings as he was never able to develop into the shutdown, late-inning option that he was initially tabbed to be. After he was saddled with a 5.18 ERA over his first two seasons where he was brought up to start, he put together a top-tier campaign in 2017 with a 1.73 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 73 innings of work in the bullpen
He couldn’t get his ERA under 3.50 in each of his next two seasons with the team before being traded at the deadline to the Reds two years ago.
The Angels are attempting to bolster a bullpen that had the seventh-highest ERA (4.59) in the majors in 2021. They made a big splash before the lockout by bringing on southpaw reliever Aaron Loup, who had a career year with the New York Mets by posting a 0.95 ERA with a 0.935 WHIP in 52.3 innings of work.
