After signing Bradley, Phillies showing interest in another reliever

The 2020 Phillies had the worst bullpen ERA since the integration era began in 1947. They’ve already made one notable free-agent addition for 2021, and appear to be considering a second.

On Monday, the Phillies and Archie Bradley finalized their one-year/$6 million deal after an agreement had been reached Thursday, Jan. 14. The Phillies will look to Bradley for consistency in a bullpen full of young, unproven arms.

Since transitioning to a reliever in 2017, Bradley has been seldom injured and posted a 2.95 ERA over 234 2/3 innings of work.

Even with Bradley officially in the fold, the Phillies bullpen situation is still fluid. According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com the Phillies have shown interest in veteran Jeremy Jeffress.

Jeffress has posted a sub-2.00 ERA in two of the last three seasons, ranking fifth among MLB relievers in that category since 2018. In that timeframe, he has been effective against both left-handed and right-handed hitters, holding them to .211 and .206 batting averages respectively.

Jeffress is a four-pitch pitcher, relying mostly on his splitter and sinker which he throws a combined 63% of the time. Jeffress also throws a curveball and a four-seam fastball.

While the Phillies will face quite a bit of competition for the 33-year-old – Feinsand says “at least 10 teams” are interested in the reliever – this proves that the Phillies are not done adding bullpen pieces solely with the addition of Bradley.

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