Brewers outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. will be exercising his $9.5MM player option to remain in Milwaukee for the 2022 season, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Bradley would have received a $6.5MM buyout had he chosen to decline the option and re-enter the free agent market. Bradley and the Brewers share a $12MM mutual option for the 2023 season that contains an $8MM buyout.
It was expected that Bradley would pick up his option in the wake of the worst hitting season of his nine-year MLB career. While Bradley’s numbers at the plate have always been somewhat inconsistent, his production utterly plummeted in 2021, with only a .163/.236/.261 slash line and six home runs over 428 plate appearances. Due to his late signing, Bradley missed the first month of Spring Training, yet that lack of preparation time hardly accounts for a career-worst walk rate (6.5%) and strikeout rate (30.8%).
The offensive numbers were poor enough that Bradley was still a negative-fWAR player (-0.8) even despite his still-excellent glovework. Bradley is a finalist for the NL center field Gold Glove, and looking to earn the award for the second time, after capturing AL honors with the Red Sox in 2018. For a medium-market team like the Brewers, $9.5MM is a hefty price for a defense-only player, even a stellar fielder like Bradley. It doesn’t help that the Brew Crew are also paying $18MM to Lorenzo Cain next season, another excellent defender whose bat has fallen off (though not to the extent of Bradley’s struggles).
If Milwaukee looked to carve out payroll space by trading one of the two, Bradley is probably the easier sell, if a team is willing to roll the dice on a rebound at the plate and is intrigued by the extra year of control if Bradley’s hitting does rebound. A significant chunk of Bradley’s contract is deferred, so in terms of pure dollars, the Brewers have only paid Bradley $3MM thus far, though the future deferrals could complicate any trade possibilities.
You’d think that his .497 SLG would be enough for a multi year deal- wait, never mind. That’s his OPS.
Bradley and Boras talked up teams like he was one of the best overall players in baseball last offseason. Now Bradley doesn’t think he is worth even $3 million on the market. Convince them to pay you your biggest contract ever and then start sucking out loud. Typical for some Boras clients. Here’s an idea, Jackie: Just play better. You did it before. You aren’t old. You aren’t injured. Why can’t you do it now? It seems like he is one of the many MLB players who hits the free agent market for the first time, takes a bunch of guaranteed money and immediately goes into semi-retirment. Why continue trying your hardest when you know you can’t make any more money off of it?
I love JBJ but he’s basically admitting there isn’t a starting job out there for him. if there was, wouldn’t he have accepted less for the guarantee of playing every day to reset his value? He realizes the guaranteed money for the next two years is basically his ceiling. After 2023, he could be looking at a minor league offer with a spring training invite. Still the greatest defensive Sox CFer I ever saw put on a Sox uniform.
Oh boy, aren’t the Brewers the lucky ones.
A risky move that didn’t pan out.
What’s to love? A guy that hits .160 but is athletic? Cain is a better centerfielder and a better clubhouse leader too. JBJ belongs in A Ball somewhere.
Cain gets hurt. JBJ by history will never hit but man when he gets in a one to three week groove, it’s fun to watch. To me his glove in his prime was as good as Jr., Paul Blair, Andrew Jones or others who were in the class if bring the best I ever saw.
It probably has more to do with next (2023) year’s mutual option. He’ll pick that up too, and if the Brewers don’t, he’ll get $8 mil, plus a chance to steal another contract elsewhere.
Boras can sell the idea that even though he aged 3 years since his last contract, but he won’t have suffered the wear and tear riding the pine half the time.
The 2nd year option probably has a lot to do with it. You’re right. Sometimes Boras can sell poop to an outhouse. That’s why some teams are very apprehensive about dealing with him. Have any if you ever seen copies of Boras’s notebooks? He is very good at pointing out the few things a player is good at and convincing people they are the best in history at specific things. He’s also great at covering up their flaws. A great one tool player that happened to have a good hitting contract year is Boras’s wet dream. I met him once. The way he talks about his clients is nothing short if impeccable. It’s almost impossible to disagree with him in person. He knows way more about specific players than anyone I have ever met. He is also extremely calm natured. He never raises his voice. Never. You can know your opinion is right going into the conversation and walk away with a totally different mind set. If Scott Boras had become a defense attorney a lot more guilty people would be free. OJ didn’t need the dream team. Boras could have gotten it done on his own. That’s how good he is at convincing people to make bad decisions they would never normally make. I respect Scott Boras. You have to respect someone who is that good at what they do. I would never trust Scott Boras. Otherwise I might be stuck paying someone like Steven Strasburg $245 million even though walking into it I knew damn well Stras cannot stay healthy.
It’s because Boras kinda looks like Mickey Dolenz….people just like him knowing he’s just trying to be friendly and such……
God help us if he ever runs for president…
Well he ain’t all that bad. The bat will bounce back. JBJ still has his fielding…
“Bradley is a finalist for the NL center field Gold Glove”
Is it that, or he’s hoping to rebound for the next option?
The Brewers have often boasted about their analytics department being the best in MLB.
So why did their analytics tell them to give such a huge contract to a guy who last year benefited from incredibly good luck (.343 BABIP, compared to .300 league average) AND who had a career-low 27.1% hard hit ball rate.
Just further evidence of analytics being misused.
The analytics told the Brewers what they wanted to see: that JBJ was good at run-prevention. With a maturing rotation and talented bullpen, that was clearly their focus (e.g. Kolten Wong). Their top four earners in 2021 were at a position where there are only three spots. With exception to Yelich, the other three (JBJ, Avi Garcia, and Cain) were always going to be in a rotation. That doesn’t scream “we’re signing you for your bat and glove” to me; that says “were comfortable knowing whenever we put you out there, you will check this one box we so desperately want to deal with.” Unfortunately the bottom dropped out of where they expected to get a big chunk of offensive production: Yelich. So analytics wasn’t “misused”; the focus was simply put so strongly on one thing that it made for a tumultuous situation when Yelich lost his power.
pink – If that were true and the Brewers didn’t care about JBJ’s offense, they could have gotten an elite defensive CF for far less money.
When you put up an OPS+ lower than Chris Davis ever did (in at least 300 PA’s), you take what you can get.
Particularly when “what you can get” is $9.5 mil.
After the year he had I’d exercise my option too
Brewers make consistently great decisions; except for signing JBJ jr. Never quite got that one,
Not gonna hit every on every shot….mostly hate the overspend Sterns did. Should have been a 1 year with mutual option 2nd year.
Needed another CF with Cain’s injuries….he still has a great glove….unfortunately that’s all he has.
That Yelchin contract ain’t looking so good either.
Maybe if he doesn’t perform next year he can go back to Russia to be prime minister
Half Yelich, half sea urchin. The man would be deadly on the base paths.
well done
Sports.. the one of the few careers where you can perform badly at your job and still make millions..
Just like In the NFL – I lmao when a team is losing by 20 but then celebrate by dancing and making gestures when they stop the opposing RB for only a 2 yard gain.
Along with actors, musicians and corporate executives
Don’t forget Baseball commissioners
To be fair, you have to perform pretty well as an underpaid player (relative to your peers) for several years to become a player that can make millions and perform badly.
3 years ago JCPenney’s new CEO received a $17.4M compensation package.
Needless to say, money wasted.
29 teams celebrate.
When is the top 50 FA list?
Probably when you stop asking.
You don’t have a be a dick he asked a legitimate question
When it’s asked on several comments threads in one day, who’s being the d*ck?
I read in the last chat that they are aiming for next week.
egrossen – The correct answer is:
It’s not known who all the free agents will be until November 7th which is the deadline for both options and opt outs to be decided.
His hitting mechanics are awful and he had no approach at the plate whatsoever… and made no changes. Some of the best hitters aren’t afraid to choke up and just make contact. He was up there doing the same thing over and over and over. What is the definition of insanity??
JBJesus finna get his bag. 2022 All-Star right here
It’s essentially a $17.5M option, no way he walks away from that.
Wow, what a stat line
Win-win for both sides. Team friendly deal for the Brewers and a chance for JBJ to bounce back in 2022.
Win/lose. JBJ wins, Brewers lose.
Lol
LOL, it’s a team friendly deal? He’s a AA player at best. This guy is a joke. He’s the worst hitter the crew has ever had.
Contrast this with Buster leaving $22M on the table.
Brewers really need this dude to return to form at least a little.
Worst move brewers have made in a long time
The extra year to Lorenzo Cain ranks right up there.
I remember some Red Sox fans defended them not trading him last year because it was “respectful” or because trading him “might be seen as retribution” lol.
goat – Retribution for what? Regardless, his numbers weren’t all that great at the trade deadline last year as his OPS was only .663
It was after the trade deadline when he went on a tear, putting up a .985 OPS
The Red Sox should have traded him right after the 2018 season. His value was at an all-time high after a perfectly-timed hot streak won him the ALCS MVP.
Everybody knows JBJ will often go on hot streaks that are never sustainable, and a lengthy crash always follows. Dombrowski was a fool to not realize this.
How many times have I said that since the day Dombrowski lowballed Scherzer @14M the year Scherzer won the regular season S.O. record…… Yeah, that’s what I said, $14M?. really?
His OPS+ last year was 34. That’s the lowest by any outfielder in the modern era, and it’s not particularly close. The next lowest was 45 by Peter Bergeron in 2001. As for a bounce-back in his future, he’ll be 32 in April and he’s got a career OPS+ of 87. Even a return to his career averages is really bad offense. Also, how long would you want to bet on the defense remaining elite as he moves through his thirties?
Phillies will take that production in CF…..
TJ5960 – That is incorrect, JBJ’s OPS+ last year was 116. You got this year’s OPS mixed up with last year.
We’re in the offseason. The 2021 season is “last year”.
You just agreed with me in your response by now calling it a “season” rather than a year.
2021 was last season, 2020 was last year ;O)
Add in yelich hasn’t been so good since shortened 2020 season
This was a lock. But Stearns still avoids criticism.
You’re right. He’s an awful GM. Instead of denying the Mers request to interview him, Mark A should have begged them to take the slug away. Probably would have had to offer that bum LHP he got swindled into trading for (Hader) and that SS who failed miserably after coming over last May (Adames) just to get Cohen or whoever is steering that ship to not hang up the phone.
The two biggest not-a-snowballs-chance-in-hell-to-opt-out JBJ and Bauer both staying put
Rsox – JBJ exercised a player option, that’s different from opting out of a guaranteed contract.
Arenado would be an example of not opting out, he’s got $275M left on his contract.
Brewers fans weeping. This dude blows. It was a horrible signing at the time, and even worse now. Front office is dumb.
Easy decision. He is so bad and robbing them every dime of this. Bad contract