According to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford, the Red Sox are likely to break up their young outfield trio this offseason, with Jackie Bradley Jr. likely being the one headed out of town.
Bradley, Bradford reports, is already drawing interest from both the Royals and Cubs, who each have outfield slots to fill.
But according to a report on Sunday by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets have also checked in on Bradley.
Bradley, still just 25, was a consensus top-50 prospect in baseball leading up to the 2013 and 2014 seasons. However, he struggled mightily last season.
He played 127 games for the Red Sox last year, but hit a terrible .198/.265/.266 with just one home run and eight stolen bases. While he bounced back to a very impressive .249/.335/.498 line, he did so in only 255 plate appearances.
The one thing that has been there for Bradley is his defense. His career UZR so far is 21.9 and he has 18 Defensive Runs Saved in basically a season and a half of play at all three outfield positions. He bats left-handed, so there’s the thought that he could become a platoon mate with Juan Lagares in center field, but here’s the catch: he has reversed platoon splits. Essentially, trading for Bradley is committing to him as the everyday center fielder.
Considering how many teams are interested and his offensive performance this season, Bradley would probably come at a hefty price. Of course, he won’t cost Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom like Mookie Betts might, but significant prospects would have to be given up to acquire him.
Frankly, if you want a weak-hitting, slick-fielding center fielder who hits lefties better than righties, there’s already one on the roster: Juan Lagares.
Gambling on Bradley’s bat to come around doesn’t really make sense for the Mets. When you dive deeper into his game logs, you see that the good batting line he produced this year was only a product of about 50 games (he played a total of 74). His last 25 games, he slashed .179/.278/.345. The Mets would be betting on an incredibly small sample size.
Worth it? On the surface, the answer seems like a definite ‘no.’ However, Bradley is still very young and was a highly-regarded prospect, so he could very well be blossoming into the star scouts predicted him to be.
Why can’t this be easy?
(Updated 11/15)
