Archie Bradley should start 2016 in Triple-A

It seems pretty clear that Robbie Ray is winning the competition for the No. 5 starter in the Diamondbacks’ rotation. Robbie Ray has allowed just two runs in 9.2 innings this spring, far better than his primary competitor Archie Bradley.

Bradley has allowed ten earned runs in ten innings this spring. He has not shown that he is a better pitcher than Robbie Ray. Since this is the case, he should begin the season as a starter in Triple-A.

This seems like a fairly obvious prediction, but many teams will now try to get creative with their young aces. When teams do this, it can often hurt a young pitcher’s potential. This happened when the Rangers moved shutdown closer Neftali Feliz back-and-forth from the bullpen into the rotation. This hurt his career greatly; the once-dominant reliever eventually became a middling, injury prone setup man. Likewise, the Mets tried a six-man rotation experiment last year to keep their younger pitchers’ innings down. This angered Matt Harvey and never produced any tangable benefitts.

Starting Bradley in the minors  would be much better than moving Bradley to the bullpen. Moving Bradley to the bullpen or into a six-man rotation could take him out of his normal starting routine. If he starts in Triple-A he can get comfortable, regain his confidence, fit into a routine and when he is ready, he can be called up in the event of an injury.

Bradley still has tons of potential; he was the seventh overall pick in 2011 after all. But the Diamondbacks must take a “It’s not you, it’s me,” approach when it comes to starting Bradley in the bigs. The Diamondbacks are coming into the season as a win-now team. Bradley should come up when the time is right. That time is not right now.