Milwaukee Brewers Sign OF Jackie Bradley Jr to 2-Year Deal

It just felt like GM David Stearns, and the Milwaukee Brewers had one more significant move left in them. They made a competitive offer for Justin Turner that came with an average annual value of $17 million over two years. They were in on Trevor Rosenthal before he signed with Oakland. And most recently, there were rumors that they were one of half a dozen teams in on outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.

Well, the Brewers may have missed out on the first two names that I mentioned, but they didn’t miss out on Bradley Jr, as the Crew reportedly signs him to a two-year deal worth $24 million, including an opt-out after year one.

Bradley made his MLB debut with the Boston Red Sox in 2013 and has been there ever since. He saw his first full season of action in 2014, where he really struggled. But in 2015, he bounced-back, having a very good year with an OPS+ of 119, and in 2016, he made the All-Star team behind a .267/.318/.409 slash line and OPS+ of 118.

Over the next three seasons from 2017 to 2019, Bradley was a slightly below-average bat, totaling an OPS+ of 90 over that span along with a .234 batting average and .727 OPS.

However, while many hitters struggled during the shortened 2020 campaign, Bradley thrived, recording a .283 average, .814 OPS, and an OPS+ of 118 in 191 at-bats.

While offensively, Bradley has been solid, if unspectacular, defensively, he brings another exceptional glove to the Milwaukee Brewers outfield.

Bradley was a Gold Glove winner in 2018 with the Red Sox and has finished in the 92nd percentile or higher by Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average metric every year since 2017, including in the 98th and 99th percentiles in three of those seasons.

So now the big question that the Milwaukee Brewers face is where does Bradley Jr fit in with Lorenzo Cain, Avisail Garcia, and Christian Yelich?

The four highest-paid players on the Brewers roster this year are their four outfielders, and now manager Craig Counsell will be tasked with dividing the playing time between Bradley, Garcia, and Cain.

However, finding those at-bats for Bradley may not be as difficult to come by as it may initially seem. Cain, who is 35 years old, had a down 2019 season at the plate, opted-out of 2020, and is currently nursing a quad injury—although as Robert Murray notes, it is considered “very minor.”

Looking ahead, odds are that Cain is going to be receiving quite a few more days of rest than what he has in the past, with the hope that those extra off-days help keep him fresh for the entire season. Perhaps similar to what the Brewers have done in past seasons with Ryan Braun.

Meanwhile, Garcia is coming off a down 2020 season in which he recorded a .239 average, an OPS of .659, and an OPS+ of just 79. Again, the hope is that he bounces-back, but the Bradley addition gives the Crew some much-needed insurance if he doesn’t.

It’s also worth noting that Bradley likely wouldn’t have signed this deal, and the Brewers wouldn’t have offered him a $12 million AAV contract if he wasn’t going to see ample playing time.

As I’ve said before, get good players and figure out the rest later—and that’s what the Milwaukee Brewers did here. Bradley is a clear upgrade over the other internal options the Brewers had vying for that fourth outfield spot; he’s an excellent defender and will add another left-handed bat with some pop to the lineup.