Arizona Diamondbacks balancing heavy reliever workloads with light springs

Diamondbacks reliever Archie Bradley throws during a spring training workout at Salt River Fields. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic)

The second half of last season spiraled out of control for Archie Bradley, and the Diamondbacks reliever has his theories as to what went wrong. There are some possibilities he views as more likely than others, but there is one he can’t entirely rule out, one too bogged down with variables to isolate its impact.

Bradley threw 73 innings in 2017, then logged another 71 2/3 last year. The vast majority of those innings came in pressure situations and against the best hitters in the opposing lineup. Bradley can’t help but wonder what kind of effect that workload…