Jackie Bradley Jr.’s stellar defense wasn’t enough to make up for his lack of offensive production, causing the Red Sox to cut ties with the veteran outfielder. Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
BOSTON — Jackie Bradley Jr.’s second stint with the Red Sox is reportedly over.
According to Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe, the Red Sox have designated Bradley for assignment, with MLB.com’s Ian Browne confirming the report.
The move takes Bradley off of Boston’s 40-man roster. The team has seven days to trade him or waive him.
It also clears the way for Jarren Duran to receive more playing time, along with trade deadline acquisition Tommy Pham. The starting outfield going forward will be Pham in left, Jarren Duran in center and Alex Verdugo in right, and the Red Sox hope Kiké Hernández can return some time this month.
While Bradley is one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball, his struggles at the plate were glaring. The 32-year-old Gold Glove winner was hitting .210 with a .578 OPS in 91 games this season.
After spending his first eight MLB seasons in Boston, Bradley left for the Milwaukee Brewers in free agency heading into the 2021 season. He returned to the Red Sox this year in a trade that involved outfielder Hunter Renfroe, who went to Milwaukee, and prospects Alex Binelas and David Hamilton, who were acquired by Boston and are currently in Double-A with the Portland Sea Dogs.
The RED SOX apparently didn’t have to fight very hard to get the San Diego Padres to take on most of Eric Hosmer’s salary.
On Thursday, Red Sox GM Brian O’Halloran appeared on WEEI’s “Greg Hill Show” to break down the team’s activity at the MLB trade deadline.
O’Halloran said that the deal to acquire Hosmer hinged on what San Diego could add in terms of prospects and money to sweeten the pot for the former All-Star first baseman. By the time Boston came calling on Hosmer, the Padres’ cache of prospects had already been stripped in the Juan Soto trade. As a result, the Padres offered to let the Red Sox take Hosmer at the league minimum, leaving San Diego with a $44 million tab for the rest of his contract that runs through the 2025 season.
“By the time, the Padres traded Hosmer to us, they had traded most of their top prospects … The financial part of it, at that point, the deal that was offered to us was him paid down to the minimum. We weren’t going to ask to pay him more,” O’Halloran said on WEEI.
The Red Sox and Padres had to adjust on the fly. Hosmer had originally been included in the Soto deal. However, the first baseman invoked his no-trade clause to avoid going to the Washington Nationals.
As a result, Hosmer was pulled from the Soto deal and flipped to the Red Sox, who already had long-running talks with San Diego.
“We’ve had conversations dating back several years with San Diego about a lot of different things, including various concepts with Eric coming over to Boston,” O’Halloran said. “Finally, at the deadline here, we were able to get him over here and we were able to bring over some prospects with him.”
Boston also gave up pitching prospect Jay Groome and received two hitting prospects from San Diego – Max Ferguson and Corey Rosier. Ferguson and Rosier, both 22 years old, were assigned to Class A Greenville.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
