Live look at me reading that the Brewers inked Jackie Bradley Jr. to a 2 year, $24 million dollar deal at 5am today:
Okay! I wouldn’t say outfielder was necessarily a ‘need’ with Cain coming back, Yelich, and Avi Garcia reporting to camp 35 pounds lighter than last year, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned about David Stearns so far in his tenure it’s that he LOVES infielders and outfielders with versatility. He collects them like Pokemans. And I also remember thinking, ‘we already have enough outfielders!’ in 2018 when he traded for Yelich and signed Cain on the same day. That worked out prettaaayyy pretttayyyy good.
Bradley Jr. is 30 years old, won the Gold Glove in centerfield in 2018, and was the 2018 ALCS MVP when the Red Sox won the World Series. He’s a streaky hitter (career .239), but he did bat .283 with 7 bombs in the prorated year last season.
Anyway, I’m not sure what this means for the outfield in terms of who the most consistent ‘three’ will be, but if you trot out a Yelich/Bradley/Cain outfield, that’s three former Gold Glovers. Plus you added a Gold Glove at 2nd base when they signed Kolten Wong. Maybe Stearns is hedging a bit that the offense isn’t going to completely recover after a disastrous 2020 by loading up on defense. You only have to score 2 runs a game if you’re only giving up 1. That’s just math.
PS: I can never tell if I’m just a dopey homer or if the team I’m rooting for as a real chance, but it’s starting to feel like the Brewers might be a contender? Those projected standings that dropped a few weeks back that had the Crew winning about 90 games and the Central comfortably kind of surprised me. But between that and moves like this one, I’m starting to think it’s not that far fetched? Print the shirts!
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