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Most people leave the Phoenix Open with full stomachs, agonizing sunburns and way too much alcohol in their bloodstreams.
Former Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley left with a job offer.
At the 16th hole, where many of the event’s most esteemed guests spend their time, Bradley stopped by the Diamondbacks’ suite to visit some old friends. Among them was team president and CEO Derrick Hall, who occupied the same role when the Diamondbacks drafted Bradley seventh overall in 2011.
“Derrick just was pretty honest,” Bradley told PHNX Sports. “He was like, ‘Hey man, when you’re done playing, I want you involved with the Diamondbacks … We’ll figure it out, whether it’s calling games, you’re a coach, but I want you to be a Diamondback when you’re done.’
“It tugged on my heartstrings … He’s right, man. At my core, I’m a Diamondback. And what better place, even if it’s not playing, to continue to work with the team that started it all?”
Within a few weeks, Bradley suited up for the Diamondbacks once again. This time, he was not the closer or eighth-inning reliever. He was in the broadcast booth at Salt River Fields, working as a color commentator on the webcast for a Diamondbacks spring training game.
As was the case with his role as a high-leverage reliever, Bradley’s outspoken personality and charisma seemingly make him a perfect fit.
“Anyone who’s followed me or knows me knows that speaking is probably my strong point outside of playing baseball,” Bradley said.
“I’ve seen the way people talk on TV. I feel like I’m pretty knowledgeable with the sport of baseball and pop culture in general. I know the way I’ve held court in the clubhouse, and it’s like, man, let’s see if I could do this in front of a screen.”
Count Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo among Bradley’s biggest supporters.
“Archie is one of a kind,” Lovullo said. “He is full of energy, full of insights … He belongs in Arizona. This is the right place for him. He’s got a lot of fans in this town. If he’s going to cut his teeth in this particular industry, I think he’s in the right place.”
While a broadcast career of his own could soon take off, Bradley’s primary goal now is the same as it’s been for more than a decade: to pitch in the major leagues. After back-to-back seasons derailed by an elbow injury, Bradley is aiming for a comeback in 2024.
Regardless of where his baseball career goes from here, Bradley can rest assured that the Diamondbacks’ door will be open for him when his playing career is over.
Given what he meant to the team during his tenure in Arizona, it is not hard to see why.
The 2017 Diamondbacks had a lot going for them: a superstar position player in Paul Goldschmidt, an ace in Zack Greinke and an up-and-coming starting pitcher in Robbie Ray. One thing they appeared to lack entering the year was a dominant relief pitcher.
Enter Archie Bradley.
After working as a starter with mixed results the year prior, Bradley made the Opening Day roster as a multi-inning reliever and eventually blossomed into his team’s most reliable high-leverage arm.
For as good as he was on the mound that year — a 1.73 ERA in 73 innings — Bradley’s two most memorable moments that season did not occur on the mound.
One happened in the NL Wild Card game against the Colorado Rockies. With two on, two out and a one-run lead in the seventh inning, Bradley scorched a two-run triple — yes, as a hitter — to give the Diamondbacks a three-run lead and send a sold-out crowd into a frenzy. It will forever be remembered as one of the greatest postseason moments in franchise history.
The other happened a couple of months earlier on Aug. 8, 2017 in a home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, to which Dodgers fans showed up in droves.
To be clear, the fact that there was plenty of Dodger blue in the stands was hardly a shock. The Diamondbacks are a young franchise, and they have the misfortune of being located less than 400 miles away from Los Angeles, home of one of baseball’s most storied franchises. The fact that the Dodgers were scalding hot at the time, having won 13 of their past 14 games, probably did not help.
Throughout the game, there was a constant back-and-forth in the stands between Diamondbacks and Dodgers fans. The Dodgers had a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth, but the Diamondbacks took the lead the next inning on a go-ahead, left-on-left grand slam by third baseman Jake Lamb.
Bradley was tasked with shutting the door in the top of the eighth, and he did exactly that on just seven pitches. As he walked off the mound, he made it clear that the Dodgers fans were not welcome.
“This is our house!” Bradley screamed pointing down at the Chase Field grass. “Let’s go!”
Bradley expanded on his thoughts after the game.
“You look up, you see the blue in the stands and this is our house, man,” he told reporters. “I don’t care how many games back we are, I don’t care if we’re the worst team in baseball. I want to win at home, and I want to see Diamondbacks fans in the stands. I don’t like seeing blue in the stands.”
Bradley understood the Diamondbacks’ plight; how Phoenix is a city of transplants, how the franchise hasn’t been around long enough to organically develop a big enough fanbase to rival that of the Dodgers. But what made Bradley different from most was that he was not okay with it, and he was on a mission to change it.
“People call the Valley kind of the stepping stone Triple-A of baseball sometimes,” Bradley told PHNX Sports. “I took that personally, man. I valued the fans we have, I value what this city means. You just got to have a spark, and I felt like I was able to be kind of a spark and, if I can say it, a face for a team that needed a face at the time.”
On paper, Bradley was not the most valuable player on that 2017 Diamondbacks team, or the Arizona teams for which he played similar roles in the years following. But, even as a reliever who only saw a few minutes of shine every couple of days, he emerged as a fan favorite, and, in many ways, the heart and soul of his team.
Bradley’s sub-2.00 ERA in 2017 proved unsustainable, but for a team that has been haunted by bullpen woes since its inception, he is still one of the best relievers in franchise history.
In 227 innings out of the Diamondbacks bullpen from 2017 to the day he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2020, Bradley logged a 3.01 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and .230 batting average against.
Given the bond that Bradley built with fans and people in the organization during his time in Arizona, Bradley has his eyes set on returning to the Diamondbacks as an employee of some sort — but not yet. For now, his focus is still on pitching.
“I’m putting every egg into the playing basket,” he said.
Bradley has been training at Driveline Baseball, a data-driven training organization that has a branch in Scottsdale, while also engaging in intensive workout and nutrition programs.
Since he was dealt from the Diamondbacks to the Reds in 2020, Bradley’s pitching career has not gone as planned. After pitching well in a handful of games with Cincinnati, Bradley spent the 2021 season with the Philadelphia Phillies. There, he posted a decent 3.71 ERA, albeit with a lower strikeout rate (17.9 percent) than he had as a reliever with the Diamondbacks (26.7 percent).
In 2022, Bradley signed with the Los Angeles Angels, but his season was cut short after breaking his elbow while attempting to climb over the dugout railing at Angel Stadium.
Bradley did not pitch again in 2022, and, in retrospect, he feels like he compounded the problem by rushing himself back into action in 2023.
After inking a minor-league deal with the Miami Marlins in early April, Bradley managed to make four total appearances in the majors last year. He was there as a filler, however, not the late-game weapon he has proven to be in the past.
“That’s just not for me,” Bradley said. “I’m either going to compete at the big-league level, or I’ve had a good career and I’m ready to go explore other options.”
Time will tell whether Bradley’s goal of landing a prominent role in a big-league bullpen will come to pass.
One thing is sure, however: Whenever he does decide to call it a career, the same franchise that got his baseball career started will be eager to welcome him back.
“With his personality,” Hall said, “who he is, the way this organization loves him, the way our fans love him, it makes a lot of sense to try and work him in in some way as a personality.”
Said Bradley: “Regardless of if I ever play here again, the story that I was able to build out here, the name I was able to build for myself, the home I’ve created. I mean, we’re in the process of moving back to the Valley, whether baseball works out or not because Arizona has been so good to me.
“This is the place for me. Whether I’m playing or post-career, Arizona is home.”
Top photo: Getty Images
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