Jackie Bradley Jr. enters what could be final month with Red Sox

BOSTON --- The Red Sox retaining Jackie Bradley Jr. through Monday’s trade deadline was a bit of a surprise.

Boston was one of baseball’s sellers and moved all of its pending free agents in 2021. The lone exception was the center fielder, who has been with the organization since being selected 40th overall out of South Carolina in the 2011 draft.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said the club would like to retain Bradley’s service "for a long [...]

BOSTON --- The Red Sox retaining Jackie Bradley Jr. through Monday’s trade deadline was a bit of a surprise.

Boston was one of baseball’s sellers and moved all of its pending free agents in 2021. The lone exception was the center fielder, who has been with the organization since being selected 40th overall out of South Carolina in the 2011 draft.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said the club would like to retain Bradley’s service "for a long time." That was news to him during a Wednesday meeting with the media, as Bradley spoke prior to the series finale with Atlanta at Fenway Park.

"I think that’s just something that they’ve communicated with you at this point," Bradley said. "I’ll be a free agent in a couple weeks. That’s the cool thing about free agency – you get to weigh out your options."

Mookie Betts, Brandon Workman and Kevin Pillar are among the pending free agents who have been dealt away by Boston this year. The Red Sox have received just one current big leaguer in the five trades completed by Bloom – Alex Verdugo. The rest of the returns include prospects and international bonus pool cash.

"He’s been here a long time," Bloom said Monday. "He means an enormous amount to this organization. For me personally – not having known him as long, but regardless – I can see what an incredible person he is. We know he’s a good player.

"We’d love to have him here for a long time. That was the case months ago. It was the case yesterday, the case today, the case tomorrow. I don’t there’s anything to read into today."

You might have expected Bloom to speak in such a manner about Betts, a former American League Most Valuable Player and exemplary citizen off the diamond. Bradley matches his former teammate in the character department, but his play on the field – particularly at the plate – falls a bit shy by comparison. The 30-year-old entered Wednesday with a career slash line of .236/.317/.407, including 156 doubles and 93 home runs in 850 career games.

"You think about it," Bradley said. "It’s part of what my job entails. But at the end of the day it’s not something I’m going to sit and worry about. I can’t control that outside factor. I can just control my play and my decisions."

It would be a logical conclusion to draw that Bradley didn’t spark the same interest on the market as Workman, Pillar or Mitch Moreland. Defense is his primary asset, as his Gold Glove won in 2018 will attest. Bradley said his metrics on that side of the ball could be even more favorable playing the majority of his home games in an outfield configuration more symmetrical than Fenway Park.

"Especially in left-center," Bradley said. "I feel like there are balls I would be able to catch that I can’t catch. With the old way of grading, they don’t factor that in. They just factor in sections and the distance balls expected would have been."

Bradley was expecting his wife, Erin, and their daughter to join him at their Boston home on Thursday. He’s lived alone to this point in what has been a challenging season off the field. Bradley has taken a strong stand for social justice and racial equality by kneeling during the national anthem and being outspoken regarding ongoing public issues.

Bradley told Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke he would not be available for last Thursday’s series finale with the Blue Jays, and his teammates ultimately decided to support him. The game between Boston and Toronto in Buffalo went unplayed, one of seven cancelations that night around Major League Baseball. Bradley is the lone Black player on the Red Sox roster, and Boston at the time was one of 14 clubs with two or less Black players on its roster.

"I received a tremendous amount of support from staff, the organization, teammates," Bradley said. "It was special to see.

"I told them at the beginning, ‘Please do not stop playing the game because of my personal decision that I wanted to make. I want you to play this game. This is something that you love and what you want to do. Do not react on something that I wanted to do.’

"With that, they showed tremendous support for me. It meant a lot."

Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke was on the verge of tears while addressing the media after Thursday’s cancelation was announced. Roenicke said he had individual conversations with Bradley and first-base coach Tom Goodwin earlier in the day prior to the decision being made. Goodwin joined Bradley, Verdugo, third-base coach Carlos Febles and assistant athletic trainer Brandon Henry is taking a knee for the national anthem prior to Opening Day against the Orioles.

"Ron cares," Bradley said. "Ron truly cares. He gets it. He’s not just a manager. He’s someone you can come to and speak to on a personal level. My hat’s off to him with everything that’s transpired over this offseason and all the stuff that went down."

bkoch@providencejournal.com

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