The trade deadline is officially in the rear-view mirror, and the Boston Red Sox sent away several players as they look towards the future. Interestingly enough, one player they didn’t trade was center fielder and impending free agent Jackie Bradley Jr. Bradley is currently in the final year of his deal, and many expected the Red Sox to trade him for some young prospect. However, Chaim Bloom didn’t want to take that risk.
Speaking to reporters after the deadline, Bloom said that he wants to keep Bradley in Boston for “a long time.” From the sound of it, the Red Sox believe that Bradley is a key piece of the future and wasn’t going to leave the organization unless the front office was blown away by a ridiculous offer.
Chaim Bloom on not moving Bradley: ‘We love Jackie. … We’d love to have him here a long time. That was the case months ago. That’s the case today.’
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) August 31, 2020
Chaim Bloom: We Want Jackie Bradley to Be A Red Sox For “A Long Time”
The fact that Bloom didn’t trade Bradley speaks to how much he values his role for the future of this team. As an impending free agent, Bloom could have traded Bradley now and tried to re-sign him in the offseason. However, the Red Sox would lose negotiating privileges by doing this, and Bloom clearly feels that maximizing the odds of keeping Bradley is more important than any prospect they could have received.
Prior to the trade deadline, Jackie Bradley Jr. made it to the plate 109 times this season. During hit time at-bat, the center fielder posted a .242/.303/.343 slash line with an accompanying 72 wRC+. His BABIP (batting average on balls in play) currently sits at .301, which is actually slightly above his career average of .295. This all accumulates into an underwhelming -0.2 fWAR on the season.
Bradley has been streaky throughout the course of his career and currently has a .236/.317/.407 slash line and a 91 wRC+ in 3,173 plate appearances
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