It may be too soon to know for certain, but the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ second demotion of Archie Bradley to Triple-A Reno in 2016 looks like it was the right move.
Tony La Russa is no stranger to knowing how to handle a pitching prospect’s upbringing. As everyone well knows, before he became Chief Baseball Officer for the D-backs, La Russa was a skipper for over three decades with three different MLB organizations.
The signing of Zack Greinke was his first major move on the pitching front for Arizona. Trading for Shelby Miller appears to be a work in progress at the moment, but few can be critical this season about how he’s handled top prospect Archie Bradley.
Bradley, now 23, was Arizona’s first round pick (7th overall) back in the 2011 amateur draft. That selection far predates La Russa’s involvement with the organization (winter 2014), but Bradley hasn’t found any real success with the Diamondbacks, until now.
2015 was the first year Bradley made the club out of Spring Training. After limping along to a 2-3 record with a 5.80 ERA in his first eight starts, he was designated for assignment and did not re-appear for the club again.
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This season, Bradley did not crack the 25-man roster out of camp. Instead, he made two starts for the Reno Aces in April before being called up for a spot start with the D-backs on April 18 against the Giants. Had he performed well, Bradley might have stuck. He went 4.1 innings, allowed seven hits, four walks and five earned runs.
Following a demotion back down to Triple-A, Bradley caught fire, logging two quality starts before an impressive spot start May 9 back up with Arizona. At arguably the toughest venue to pitch in the National League, he faced the talented Rockies lineup at Coors Field. The damage was minimal, as he logged six innings of four-run ball while picking up the win.
He was sent back down and three more quality starts across Triple-A ensued. All in all between his first demotion and last by the Diamondbacks, Bradley logged 34 innings pitched with Reno. He dropped his ERA there from 4.05 to 1.99 and punched out 38, while issuing free passes to 13.
Since returning to the Show for a third time, Bradley looks to have a new lease on life as a big league pitcher. Against the Padres at home on May 29, he pitched into the eighth inning and allowed three earned runs, only one walk and struck out nine to pick up his fourth career victory.
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The competition got more stiff after that, with Bradley facing John Lackey and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on June 3. Heading into the contest, the Cubbies’ offense ranked first in the NL in OBP and second in runs scored and driven in.
Bradley did everything he could to keep his team in the game against baseball’s best club. He did not allow a run nor a base runner to reach third until the bottom of the sixth inning, when Anthony Rizzo doubled in Jason Heyward. It was the only damage done on Bradley’s watch all day. He spun six innings, needing 112 pitches to log his 18th out. He surrendered only four hits, one walk and struck out a personal best of 10 for his MLB career.
That’s a second quality start in as many outings for Bradley. His timely resolve couldn’t have came at a better time with Miller’s recent placement on the disabled list on May 25, even though he has been horrible to date.
Opponents are hitting a rather pedestrian .244 off Bradley in 2016. The most noticeable adjustment by the right-hander from last season is he’s vanquished the slider from his repertoire and changed his curveball into a knuckle-curve hybrid.
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Bradley’s velocity is also up from last season, with his fastball having hit 96.6 mph on the radar gun this season. Last year, it maxed out at 94.3 mph. It shows in his numbers too, as his K% on fastballs was only 11 percent on 465 pitches in 2015. Before his most recent start, he had thrown the heater 237 times, good for a 17.5 percent mark.