Boston Red Sox 2017 Player Previews: Jackie Bradley, Jr.

Jackie Bradley, Jr. had his breakout season for the Boston Red Sox in 2016, but finished sluggishly. Now a veteran, he has more to offer than just defense.

For years, nobody knew what Jackie Bradley, Jr. would be to the Boston Red Sox. He hit below .200 in each of his first two seasons and was hitting .174 on August 12th, 2015 before he finally locked in at the plate.

The catalyst for a hot streak that saw his average rise to .312 on September 7th was a change in his swing. Rather than dropping his left hand and tapping his toe, which threw off his timing, Bradley kept his hands in position to make them quicker to the pitch and adjusted the timing of his step.

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With those adjustments made, Bradley headed into 2016 as the starting center fielder for the Boston Red Sox. The belief was that his defense was so valuable that if he could just hit .240, he would be an important member to this team. Bradley took those expectations and shattered them over the first half of the season.

By the end of June, Bradley was hitting .294 with 12 home runs, already establishing a career high. He had a 29 game hitting streak throughout most of May and made the American League All-Star team as a starter. Bradley finished the season with a .267 average, 26 home runs, and 87 runs batted in. He had a career best 94 wRC and finished with 4.8 WAR, third highest among Red Sox batters. Bradley also had seven triples, the second most in the AL.

Bradley was his typical stellar self in the outfield. He ranked fourth among all center fielders in Defensive Runs Saved with eleven and was a Gold Glove finalist for the American League. One component of Fangraphs’ calculation of DRS is rARM, which “evaluates an outfielder’s throwing arm based on how often runners advance on base hits and are thrown out trying to take extra bases.” It calculates how many runs are saved by the outfielder’s arm.

As anyone who has seen this video from 2014 can attest, Bradley has a pretty strong arm. Unsurprisingly, he led center fielders in rARM and was third overall among all outfielders in the majors.

Overcoming a major slump

The low points of Bradley’s 2016 came in June, August, and October. He established himself as a streaky hitter. Bradley hit .381 in May, followed by .218 in June. He hit .298 in July, followed by .198 in August.

He scuffled to the finish line and only got one hit in his ten postseason at bats, while striking out seven times. While was fluctuating in his ability to get on base, Bradley did consistently drive in runs. He had twelve or thirteen RBI in every month (except for the 24 in his scorching hot May stretch) and had at least four home runs in every month except for April.

The culprit of Bradley’s struggles was high strikeout numbers. Overall, Bradley’s strikeout rate has actually decreased in each of his major league seasons. He went 29% as a rookie to 22.5% from last year, though his 636 at bats in 2016 may have just lowered it by the simple effect of a larger sample. Regardless, he is striking out less than he did when he was younger. He even walked more than he struck out in that incredible May, seventeen walks to fifteen K’s.

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Then in August, Bradley struck out 39 times. He finished the season striking out 143 times. Bradley has mentioned many times during Spring Training that he needs to cut that number down.

With parts of four seasons under his belt, Bradley is surprisingly one of the longest tenured players in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse. Since his first game in 2013, Bradley has cut off his cornrows, changed his number three times, gotten married, and had a baby daughter. He still knows how to have fun of course (just look to the outfield after every Boston Red Sox win), but Bradley has grown up right before the very eyes of Red Sox Nation. He may not be the best player in that outfield, but he is the oldest and most experienced. Bradley has a respected voice in the clubhouse now and can become a leader for his teammates.

Streakiness is to be expected of Bradley at this point. His ability to be consistent in other facets of the game aside from his average are going to be keys to him having a good season. He will still play tremendous defense and could lead the league in rARM this season. At the plate, thirty home runs and 100 RBI would be a bit of a stretch, but he was closer than expected last season.

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Bradley will deliver some scorching hot stretches and some ice cold ones, but the saying around Boston has turned from “Well, if he can just hit .240…” to “Well, if he can just hit .260…”.

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