JBJ Signs With Brewers

The dream is dead

It finally happened. The last member of the greatest outfield in Red Sox history has left town. Jackie Bradley Jr. signed a two year, $24 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers last night ending any hope he would return to the Red Sox.

Truthfully that hope had mostly extinguished already even if some of us (hello!) didn’t want to admit it. The Red Sox had ample opportunity to re-sign Jackie and decided they didn’t need him anymore. And they may be correct in that assessment. As we’ve discussed here at Sox Outsider more than once, this team is built on depth. As such there are at least three players on the major league roster who can play center in Hunter Renfroe, Enrique Hernandez, and Alex Verdugo. (It’s possible Franchy Cordero could play some center as well, but nobody knows for sure because he’s never actually stepped on a baseball field in order to confirm it.) And that’s all not because there’s also center field prospect Jarren Duran, who is acquitting himself quite well in spring training, with more extra base hits than strikeouts in the four games he’s played in to date. More germane to the point, the organization really likes Duran and may see him as the long term heir apparent at the position.

So the Red Sox have options in center field, and really, JBJ at 31 years old wasn’t ever the kind of player GM Chaim Bloom was going to bring back on a multi-year deal. As great as Bradley is defensively, he’s never been a fantastic hitter. His lifetime OPS is 10 percent below league average, and he’s had more below average seasons at the plate than above. With Jackie that wasn’t ever the calling card of course, it was always the spectacular defense, defense which should age well since it’s based off of reading the ball and route running rather than straight speed. The total package was probably something slightly above average at a premium position, certainly valuable, but maybe not someone to commit long term to given the options at the position and Duran’s abilities and proximity to the majors.

So while the Red Sox are seemingly well stocked at his position, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck to see JBJ leave. It does. The Red Sox picked Bradley in the first round, 40th overall, in the 2011 draft. That was the draft where the team had a staggering five out of the first 40 picks. The draft is an odd animal though, and the guys they took with the first four of those picks have totaled a paltry 3.2 WAR. Bradley though, he’s been worth 18 WAR to date. He’s also been the starting center fielder on a World Series winning team (he played in 2013 as well but was not on the playoff roster). Even more oddly, the best pick in the whole draft didn’t come until the fifth round when the Red Sox took a shortstop from a high school in Tennessee. Bradley would team with him to form one of the best outfields in team history, and, heck, I called it the greatest in team history in the first paragraph so I should probably stick with that.

It sucks Bradley didn’t hang around longer. We can never know for sure about these things, but I have it on good authority that he’s a good guy, generous with his time, respectful and caring, and not holier than thou, even though, as a star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, he could certainly get away with that. The world needs more Jackie Bradleys and the Red Sox are always in need of good guys who are easy to root for, as well, and so I’ll be sad he’s leaving from that standpoint.

The truth is though, with Duran waiting in the wings, and the way the team is about their payroll now, meaning they don’t want to go over the luxury tax unless it’s absolutely necessary, not bringing Bradley back was probably the right move. Pre-luxury tax, and pre-COVID-19, I’d argue bringing Bradley back on a two- or three-year deal would be the right thing, and if Duran pushes his way onto the major league roster then you deal with that problem when it arrives. But given the current real-world and somewhat self-imposed constraints, it just wasn’t realistic with the way the off-season played out.

Jackie will always be a part of Red Sox history though for all the ridiculous catches he’s made, the times when the ball was in no man’s land and all of a sudden there was Jackie gliding over and going into that signature backwards jog just as the ball landed in his glove. We’ll remember his ski jumps in the middle of a beaming Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi after Red Sox wins. We’ll remember the grand slam he hit off Roberto Osuna in Game 3 of that same series to turn a tight game into a laugher. Mostly though, we’ll remember the three run double that bounced along the outfield wall as the Red Sox came back to win Game 2 of the ALCS against Houston.

I’ve seen a million hits down into that left field corner at Fenway but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one hit along the top of that padding down the line like that before. And, fun fact, that blurry guy trying to grab the ball there? That’s current Red Sox Marwin Gonzalez. Life is weird sometimes.

Bradley joins a Brewers team in need of a starting center fielder and really anyone who can hit at all. Fortunately for them, Jackie can do both, at least as well if not better than anyone they had on the roster. That’s a winnable division they’re in too, so kudos to them for going and getting a player like Jackie. He’ll help them, probably more than he would’ve been able to help Boston. They have a better shot at the playoffs now than they did yesterday.

So that’s really it. That’s the 2020/2021 Red Sox offseason. Bradley and Benintendi are gone. Renfroe and Cordero (if he exists) are in. We’ll see how that works out. One final note, if you’re wondering, the Brewers don’t play the Red Sox this season, but in May they do play both the Dodgers and the Royals.