We Wish You Well Jackie Bradley Jr. (DFA 8.4.22)

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Agreed. That's $10.75M in total salary vs at least $13M (or $24M+ over two years) + two other players.

I was one who advocated for re-signing JBJ at a reasonable price (and I didn't think $10-12M AAV was unreasonable). But Bloom made the decision to spend the money on three more versatile players. Players that to this point have been disappointing, but still have been a more efficient use of the money from a roster building perspective.
Enrique is on pace for a 2.7 WAR season in 127 games played. Hard to say that's a disappointing outcome for $6 mil. If he repeats it next year at his $ 8mil price tag, it's eerily similar to JBJ's 2.5 and 2.1 WAR seasons in 2018/19 where he was paid 6.1 and 8.5 million. His season could easily go either way or a hot or cold streak though. The other guys, yeah.

Verdugo has been good and Renfroe has been solid too. There's Duran on the farm tearing the cover off the ball. There are wildcards in Cordero and Marcus Wilson OF is pretty covered.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 23, 2001
10,639
A .697 OPS aint what it used to be. It's good for an OPS+ of 89. He's another good week away from being an average hitter. It's also light years away from a .509 OPS, and a 41 OPS+. Enrique should not be lumped in with Marwin, Santana or JBJ for production to date.

Even if you happen to think Enrique, Marwin and Santana were the wrong decisions, it doesn't make signing JBJ the correct one. Maybe he rebounds, but atm, passing looks like the correct move. This is more true if Duran works out.
What makes you think he's going to have another good week? He hasn't had a lot of them.

Agreed on JBJ though. Definitely a bullet dodged there.
 

LoweTek

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
May 30, 2005
2,195
Central Florida
I noted a number of plays in CF JBJ would have likely made which were not made by various occupiers of the position. I'm not arguing it makes up entirely for lack of plate production but his absence is definitely noticeable out there. He knew how to play CF at Fenway.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
What makes you think he's going to have another good week? He hasn't had a lot of them.

Agreed on JBJ though. Definitely a bullet dodged there.
I'm not sure if he will. I think his season could take a turn for the good or the bad but his season to date hasn't been horrible. Lumping in a guy with roughly a .700 OPS with 3 other guys hovering around .500 doesn't seem fair. It'll take a lot more than a good week to turn their season around.

Enrique could go 5/10 with 3 doubles and 2 walks and be league average.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
80,823
Is there a point in trading back for him, if we can get MKE to pay, say, 75%, of his contract?
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
80,823
What do you suppose Milwaukee would want in return for eating about $13M?
Enrique?
Some prospect that's blocked here?

I have no clue, just throwing an idea out there, but if they paid JBJ all that money, maybe their desires aren;t rational. I just think he's worth more here than there.
 

OurF'ingCity

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 22, 2016
8,470
New York City
Is there a point in trading back for him, if we can get MKE to pay, say, 75%, of his contract?
Given that Duran is going to be called up sooner or later there really doesn't seem to be a spot on the team for JBJ even if Milwaukee had any interest in trading him (I suspect they do not, if only in the hope that he can go on a hot streak to pump his value a little before they trade him).
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
80,823
Given that Duran is going to be called up sooner or later there really doesn't seem to be a spot on the team for JBJ even if Milwaukee had any interest in trading him (I suspect they do not, if only in the hope that he can go on a hot streak to pump his value a little before they trade him).
True. It depends how many of the flotsam/jetsam (Enrique/Marwin/Santana/Chavis/Dalbec) are on the active ML roster. If 3+, then yes, no spot after Duran. But at 25% of salary, he'd be good as a 4th or 5th OF IMHO if half his games were at Fenway.
 

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
SoSH Member
Dec 6, 2003
22,902
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
An example of how non Boston fans are different

My Brewers buddy from WI is like "It's ok, we just need him to play D...he's the 8 hitter anyway". That's it. No concern about his awfulness at the plate at all or the contract.
 

shaggydog2000

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 5, 2007
12,568
An example of how non Boston fans are different

My Brewers buddy from WI is like "It's ok, we just need him to play D...he's the 8 hitter anyway". That's it. No concern about his awfulness at the plate at all or the contract.
When I first moved to San Diego (18 years ago) I was in a bar and a Padres-Dodgers game was on. That was the big local rivalry from what I understood. A Padres player committed an atrocious error, and the guy sitting next to me said "Aw, that's too bad, he'll get em next time." He didn't swear, didn't threaten to murder the guy, nothing. I immediately knew I was on a different planet. I must have given him an odd look because the guy then went on to tell me about the player's charity work in the area. For a moment I thought that maybe other places in the country were putting sports in their proper perspective. I then imagined Shea Hillenbrand screwing up a play with a game on the line, saw red, and decided these people were crazy.

Also, the fish tacos I was eating at the time were excellent.
 

Bleedred

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 21, 2001
10,609
Boston, MA
When I first moved to San Diego (18 years ago) I was in a bar and a Padres-Dodgers game was on. That was the big local rivalry from what I understood. A Padres player committed an atrocious error, and the guy sitting next to me said "Aw, that's too bad, he'll get em next time." He didn't swear, didn't threaten to murder the guy, nothing. I immediately knew I was on a different planet. I must have given him an odd look because the guy then went on to tell me about the player's charity work in the area. For a moment I thought that maybe other places in the country were putting sports in their proper perspective. I then imagined Shea Hillenbrand screwing up a play with a game on the line, saw red, and decided these people were crazy.

Also, the fish tacos I was eating at the time were excellent.
Bruce Hurst seconds this post, all except for the fish tacos (well, maybe he likes fish tacos too).
 

Tokyo Sox

Baka Gaijin
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Feb 16, 2006
6,410
There
Just thought I'd bump this so we could all rediscover our love for our new old player.
 

ngruz25

Bibby
SoSH Member
Sep 20, 2005
19,649
Pittsburgh, PA
JBJ's return does present a new problem.

From 2017 to 2020, Jackie wore #19. With JBJ gone last year, the Red Sox gave #19 to Hirokazu Sawamura.

From 2013 to 2016, Jackie wore #25. JBJ might ask for his old number back, but that number is currently held by recently resigned Kevin Plawecki.

Maybe he should look to the number he used last year in Milwaukee? No dice, as #41 is the property of Chris Sale.

There is one final option. JBJ broke into the league sporting #44. Unfortunately, that number was last worn in 2021 by Brad Peacock, so I have to imagine that all copies of the jersey number and the template used to cut the fabric were properly disposed of, never to be used again.
 

Wallball Tingle

union soap
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
2,518
My favorite part of re-reading this thread was the hand-wringing around Enrique. Teehee.

And the "It's a HR, jk, lol" deke, that was awesome!
 

Rice4HOF

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 21, 2002
1,921
Calgary, Canada
JBJ's return does present a new problem.

From 2017 to 2020, Jackie wore #19. With JBJ gone last year, the Red Sox gave #19 to Hirokazu Sawamura.

From 2013 to 2016, Jackie wore #25. JBJ might ask for his old number back, but that number is currently held by recently resigned Kevin Plawecki.

Maybe he should look to the number he used last year in Milwaukee? No dice, as #41 is the property of Chris Sale.

There is one final option. JBJ broke into the league sporting #44. Unfortunately, that number was last worn in 2021 by Brad Peacock, so I have to imagine that all copies of the jersey number and the template used to cut the fabric were properly disposed of, never to be used again.
He wore #74 the first Spring Training that I saw him in 2013. He looked great then, maybe he can go back to that? (I think Connor Wong used that last year).
 

Zedia

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
7,773
Pasadena, CA
JBJ's return does present a new problem.

From 2017 to 2020, Jackie wore #19. With JBJ gone last year, the Red Sox gave #19 to Hirokazu Sawamura.

From 2013 to 2016, Jackie wore #25. JBJ might ask for his old number back, but that number is currently held by recently resigned Kevin Plawecki.

Maybe he should look to the number he used last year in Milwaukee? No dice, as #41 is the property of Chris Sale.

There is one final option. JBJ broke into the league sporting #44. Unfortunately, that number was last worn in 2021 by Brad Peacock, so I have to imagine that all copies of the jersey number and the template used to cut the fabric were properly disposed of, never to be used again.
I still think JBJ would‘ve been a HOFer if he just kept 44. Why change?
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
8,807
Boston, MA
At least for this moment, Jackie has a wRC+ of 110, and an OBP of .333. His BABIP is .300.

Hope springs!
He actually took an outside pitch and shot it down the left field line today instead of trying to pull it and weakly grounding to second. It would be amazing if he could do that consistently.
 

Twilight

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2006
133
He actually took an outside pitch and shot it down the left field line today instead of trying to pull it and weakly grounding to second. It would be amazing if he could do that consistently.
After that hit, on the radio they said he went to left field for his entire batting practice, so he may be working on exactly that.
 

chawson

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
5,003
We're drawing conclusions about this after 10 games?
I think we can conclude that JBJ isn’t cooked, yeah. The bat speed is there, he’s hitting the ball plenty hard. The whiffs and groundballs are down.

It wasn’t a one-for-one “challenge trade” so we arguably won it (to the extent that matters) just by netting the prospects. But a lot of people had JBJ written off as a zero at the plate this year due to deterioration of skills, but that’s clearly not true.
 
Last edited:

mikcou

Member
SoSH Member
May 13, 2007
1,006
Boston
I think we can conclude that JBJ isn’t cooked, yeah. The bat speed is there, he’s hitting the ball plenty hard. The whiffs and groundballs are down.

It wasn’t a one-for-one “challenge trade” so we arguably won it (to the extent that matters) just by netting the prospects. But a lot of people had JBJ written off as a zero at the plate this year due to deterioration of skills, but that’s clearly not true.
We can conclude that on 30 plate appearances? Thats the equivalent of a playoff series - results are going to be all over the place - even a guy who is 2021 Bradley is going to have a stretch of a few games where he plays reasonably well. I guess its better than him striking out 35% of the time, but I dont think we can take much from a such tiny sample where pretty much all of his hitting is in two games.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 23, 2001
10,639
I think we can conclude that JBJ isn’t cooked, yeah. The bat speed is there, he’s hitting the ball plenty hard. The whiffs and groundballs are down.

It wasn’t a one-for-one “challenge trade” so we arguably won it (to the extent that matters) just by netting the prospects. But a lot of people had JBJ written off as a zero at the plate this year due to deterioration of skills, but that’s clearly not true.
I guess you have pretty low expectations of what "isn't cooked" looks like. He's hitting .217/.308/.348. He has five hits including three doubles in 9 games played so far. He has struck out five times. Not exactly setting the world on fire.

More importantly, JBJ had an 9 game stretch last year from July 11 to July 21 where he slashed .333/.379/.484. He had 9 hits including 2 doubles and a triple. He struck out five times in this stretch. No idea if the bat speed was there or if he was hitting the ball pretty hard, but he hit .112/.171/.153 the rest of the season, so not much predictive value there, I think.



Edit - he had a similarly good eight game stretch from June 27 to July 4 where he hit .357/.400/.429. I'll bet there were Brewers fans who thought on July 21, "Thank god, he's finally turned the corner!"

And if there's one thing we should all know about JBJ by now is that he is the streakiest player in baseball history - there's no way one should assume too much predictive value to what he does over a short period of play.
 
Last edited:

Red(s)HawksFan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 23, 2009
22,608
Maine
We can conclude that on 30 plate appearances? Thats the equivalent of a playoff series - results are going to be all over the place - even a guy who is 2021 Bradley is going to have a stretch of a few games where he plays reasonably well. I guess its better than him striking out 35% of the time, but I dont think we can take much from a such tiny sample where pretty much all of his hitting is in two games.
April 10-18, 2021: 35 PA, .333/.371/.515/.887, 2 2B, 2 3B

Maybe he just likes hitting this week every year?