Bradley headed back to the big league
Jackie Bradley Jr., welcome back to the show. Many may remember Bradley’s rise to instant fan favorite during Spring Training and his brief stay at Fenway Park, well now he’s back and ready to continue to endear himself to the Fenway faithful.
Despite having a red hot spring training (.419/.507/.613), Bradley saw a big dip in his stats when he joined the Sox at the beginning of the season. Simply put, he looked overmatched at the plate. In 12 games, he batted .097 with three RBI and one stolen base. Once David Ortiz came off the DL the Sox sent Bradley down to Pawtucket to continue working on his swing and improving. Though he generated a lot of fanfare, he is only 23 years old and never played higher than AA so he is still developing into the player he will be for the length of his career.
Once he got to Pawtucket it was a different story though, and in 20 games he has batted .354 along with two homers and nine RBI. Bradley has been nothing short of productive at the plate and throw in his spectacular defense in center field, then you get the complete package. Going into an interleague series in Philly the Sox will need more bench players for key situations late in games. Bradley has emerged as the best candidate given his work ethic and talent.
John Farrell has yet to make the official announcement, but the sense is that Bradley will definitely be joining the team in Philly Wednesday and Thursday night.
“[Bradley] is a candidate but we haven’t finalized who that will be,” Farrell said.
Even if Bradley does well, he will likely be headed back down to Pawtucket once Shane Victorino comes off of the DL. Until then it looks like Bradley is back to the majors, hopefully for his sake this time around goes a bit smoother at the plate.
