Fantasy Baseball Today - Free Agency Predictions plus Jackie Bradley Jr. Joins The Show! (12/02 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

Every Wednesday in December, you'll hear Danny Vietti alongside former Major Leaguer Will Middlebrooks here on Fantasy Baseball Today! The guys are taking a look at the bigger names in free agency before Jackie Bradley Jr. joins the show. First up, Trevor Bauer (5:10). Is he headed out West? ... Is George Springer a better fit in Toronto or Boston (13:45)? ... Danny and Will seem to be in agreement when it comes to JT Realmuto (18:45). ... Is Marcell Ozuna a lock to leave the Atlanta Braves (22:25)? ... Jackie Bradley Jr. joins the show and explains why family is such a big influence in his free agency decision (26:37). ... How did Jackie prepare for this shortened season (33:50)? ... What's this free agency like given all the circumstances (44:12)? ... The guys finish up with some rapid-fire questions for Jackie (46:20)!  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, everybody. Frank Stamphel here with a quick reminder. I mentioned it on Tuesday's podcast. But in case you didn't catch it, our friends Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks are taking over the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast every Wednesday in the month of December. They are in fantasy guys, but definitely know their baseball and have some great interviews lined up. They actually have Jackie Bradley Jr. on today's podcast and a few other players lined up in the coming weeks. Without further ado, here's Danny and Will. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Set your fan episode.

Got a fantasy question. Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam. Party people, what's good? Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. It is Wednesday. December 2nd.

It is hump day. Happy hump day. Everybody out there. Myself, Danny Vietti. along with my co-host, the World Series champ, Will Middlebrooks. We're officially hijacking the FBT podcast for today and every Wednesday in December. So a special shout out to our producer today,

Frank and the rest of the crew for allowing us to do so. If you're listening right now and wondering, who the hell are these guys? We're the normal fantasy nerds that talk to me through these speakers. You're at the right place, I promise. We're still baseball nerds. We just don't really know much about fantasy. But we think, we think we know a little bit about baseball.

We have for agency. we have insight. Most importantly, we have Jackie Bradley Jr. joining us on today's show. Speaking of World Series Boston Reds, there's a lot of Boston flavor in today's episode. How are we doing out there, Will? Dude, you know, I'm living the dream out here in Florida right now. 75 degrees. I got my golf polo on because you never know when I might just make a quick trip to the range. You know, I don't know. It's a little colder on the West Coast, right? It's been cold lately. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you think California, beautiful West.

all the time, but it's a whole different ball game when you're living in the valley. And right now I'm in the valley. I miss that San Diego weather. I'm fired up, man. This is anytime we can talk baseball in December, especially in the year like this in 2020 with all this craziness, even if we're just talking free agents and not talking fantasy baseball, like you said, that's not really our thing. But we can still chop it up and talk ball and talk about what's going on in a free agency.

And it's always good to have a guess like Jaggie. Well, I'm going to put you on the spot right away. Okay. And I want full transparency. I want you to be completely honest. And if you don't tell me the truth, consider our friendship. Basically over. Did you or did you not decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving?

You really doing this to me right now. Okay, so I did. I did. Okay, I'm a big advocate of day after Thanksgiving and every other year except for this year because it's 2020. Like I just hit on, I have a two-year-old. I got a 10-month-old. I need distractions, okay?

When we can grow outside, say, look at the lights when she's losing her mind. I needed it, okay? Don't judge me too hard. I won't do it next year, I promise. That was too good of an answer. I was really, I had so much, I had so much on you. I was ready to go out because you came after me with my shirt today. As soon as we jump on the Zoom call, you came after my shirt.

I was ready to jump after you for decorating for Christmas. But you just gave me a really good answer to strange year. And now I feel bad for attacking you. I backed it up. If you can back it up, back it up, even if it's wrong, most of the time you can talk people and believe in whatever you're saying. All right. All right. That's fair enough.

That's fair enough. Well, let's get into it. It's baseball season. It's Christmas time. It's for agency season. A whole lot of guys. I mean, what Charlie Moran has signed, Drew Smiley has signed. That's pretty much it.

NBA has been left and right signing trade here. It's been going all over the place. Major League Baseball, as expected, it's really been slow. And we talk, I've talked with it a couple different executives. and I talked with a couple different players. They said it's going to be a very, very slow burn. That's exactly what we're seeing. We're seeing a little bit of those wheels turn in,

at least with conversations between players, front offices. But we haven't really seen, we'll get into this too, because we're going to talk about Marcel Ozuna. We don't really know what the rules are going to look like in 2020. So in your perspective, that obviously changes the way owners are looking at next year and how they're going to go about their business here and for agency, right? Yeah.

And unfortunately, just like everything else in this past season, it has to do with the virus and the vaccine. And then you get to the nitty gritty to the rules of are we going to have a universal D.H, which it's still up in the air. We don't know. And that's going to affect guys like Marcelo Zona. That's going to affect national league teams because it changes your complete lineup. That's more salary you have to pay. That's another position player you have to play. That's one less pitcher you might have on your roster or in your bullpen.

So they're waiting as long as they can to get these. the fine print of these rules and everything out so they can construct their rosters after that. Well, let's construct some rosters right now. All right, let's start off. Biggest domino that is going to fall in for agency. Rainy Sy Young chant, Trevor Bauer. Right now reports are saying, or at least he said, that he might be interested in a one-year

deal, which is very unique for a guy that just won a Sy Young. Because a guy at his age, he's 29 years old, coming off of Sy Young, he could probably get, especially even though it's a weird year as we have right now, he could probably get himself a long-term deal, set his family up for life, right into the sunset. That might not be the case. It's a funny story. I was reading about it last night.

The reason he's open to this one-year deal is it's actually a bet between him and one of his buddies. And his friend said if he signs a long-term deal, Trevor Bauer, he has to stand there and take a paintball bullet. I think it was an airsoft bullet, one of the two. Pay ball. Thank you.

And the worst area possible you can imagine for eight males. So that is where this starts. This is the foundation of why Trevor Bauer is thinking about doing this one-year deal. And we know Trevor Bauer, it's a polarizing guy. He's not afraid to speak his mind. There's about 30 teams he could fit on. I think Cincinnati's a great fit where obviously he pitched last year, but there's about 29 other teams that want his services to.

So I'm going to ask you straight up front, where do you think Trevor Bauer is going to go? Where do you think the best fit is for the renting Siyang champion? Yeah, this is one guy who it is hard to pinpoint one team. And I think another thing, other than the side bet he has going on with the paintball is, this just shows you how much confidence he has. Excuse me, he can just bet on himself and basically just say, you know what? I know I can get a lot more money in one season if I sign a one-year deal.

And I can just bet on myself. I know I'm going to pitch well. and that means I'm going to be a free agent again. They're either going to have to extend me to two or three more years or I'll go free agency again. And I'm going to go visit. You see them on social media, visiting all these cities,

getting all the fan bases riled up. I could see, obviously, yes, the Mets going after. I'm very, very strongly with a one-year deal because they have $24 million off the book this year. Thank you, Mr. Robbie Canoe. Yeah, that hurts them, but helps them much more, I think, especially in this case,

trying to bring in another arm. You have Cinderguard who could be back this year coming off surgery. You have DeGrom. You just re-signed Stroman. They're starting pitching is ridiculous. Their bullpen has actually a ton of talent. We talked about this the other day. Mets seem to find a way to Mets.

That's good, Matt. I don't want to make fun of them because it's tough, especially for the fans of their team who are really loyal. But they have a chance to be really good. especially if they add that arm. I can also see the Boston Red Sox being pretty strong, a strong case to sign Bauer, just because they hit the, what,

the third highest ERA in starting pitching, third worst, and their bullpen was fourth worst. They need a lot of help. They're getting sailback. You don't know how an arm slot like that's going to come back after Tommy John. So curious to see how he bounces back. Eddie Rodriguez coming back over the hard condition with COVID and all that last year.

You don't know what you're going to get there. but Heim Bloom and I'm curious to see how he can trucks that roster because he's coming from Tampa where he didn't have much money to work with and now he's got it. So he's got to make a splash in that fan base and I can speak on that fan base and know the pressure there is to win there. And so I could see Boston making a really strong push and maybe offering a two to three year deal just to give him something different on the table than what the Mets are going to offer. I like this conversation because you can relate firsthand of this experience.

one, you've played in Boston. Two, you've played on a one-year deal. Can you tell me a little bit about the difference between when you were first coming up with the Red Sox? And you had, you might not have been making a whole lot of money, but you had a little bit of security behind you. You knew you were going to be within the Boston Red Sox organization, at least until you hit that for agency mark. But then you went over to San Diego and it was a one-year deal.

What's the difference in playing-wise? Because there's just not a lot of security. There's not a lot of baggage between that. So what's the difference playing-wise from a player's respect about that? I mean, you said it. There's not a lot of security. There's more pressure on you as a player. A lot of guys will come out in the media and you'll see them and say,

oh, I don't feel the pressure. I'm just going out and playing the game one pitch at a time, blah, blah, blah. They're human, okay? I can tell you, it's in your head. You know, all right, I've had four or five bad, you know, a stretch of bad games. I'm old for my last four or five games. If I get benched here and like someone else plays well, I might lose my spot.

There goes my free agent numbers. I'm going to arbitration. There goes those numbers. There's a lot of variables. that go into it as a player that can snowball. We know how mental of a game, baseball is. And playing on a one-year deal, if you're not playing well, can really get in your head.

Well, I got a couple numbers because you're the player perspective. I'm the nerd here. I got a couple Bauer number crunches to drop your way. Okay, so his spin rate last year, which everybody's all about analytics nowadays, his spin rate, best in the league, which is great. It was a career high for him, which is fantastic. And we all know Trevor Bauer.

He's a guy guy, right? He's a drive line guy. So he goes out to Seattle. He trains with those guys. He has a really good relationship with Kyle Boddy of drive line. He's all about analytics, all about trying to get the most out of his body. However, if we're looking at the more classical old stats, his velocity was actually down last year compared to his career. So looking at his velocity, his rookie year, he's 94.9 miles per hour, his average velocity.

Last year, he was 94.8. So that's comparing it to his rookie year. You would think your rookie year, you're coming out. The hardest he's ever thrown in his career. I'm going to interrupt quick. But you know why he was more successful? The spin rate on his curveball is so much higher. His curveball is better.

So that's his best pitch. Now hitters are in the back of their head, they're like, all right, leverage situation, guy on second base, two strikes. He's going to go to that best pitch. And now 93, 94 feels like 98. And that's why he has success. It is. But then there's also this other aspect where you look at his six, seven year career.

he's had two good seasons. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying I'm not signing him. I'm signing him right away, especially like I have him going to the Padres. When I made my predictions, I think he would work great in San Diego. They didn't have a starting rotation going into the playoffs, and they still competed. They still beat the Cardinals in that first round. And it didn't really put up much of a fight against the Dodgers. But what are he going to do when your face of Kirschaw, Bueh.

Clevenger's his boy, too, right? Leverner's his boy. They're three-run. Right. You got McKenzie Gore coming up. Exactly. Well, their bullpen was really good. Exactly.

Exactly. That's dangerous. And we know what our offense does, too. So, I mean, he's a guy on several different teams. You plug them in and they're a different team. Exactly. And I think you know that number one or number two option to plug that in. And all of a sudden now you're your number two starters now at number three.

Like that just extends you so much in a series, especially because there's so many three game series compared to four game series. It's a game changer when you can run out three guys. like Clevenger Bauer, Lamet, and then all of a sudden, you look up as an opposing team, you're like, wow, we just got swept. It happens that quick. There's always that aspect of whether you want to sign a guy that is that outspoken.

I think that's really, especially with some of these owners. Yeah, where we're at with social media now, though. I mean, yeah, you have some of the more old school ownership groups. But I think the games changing, man. It's younger. guys have a bigger mouthpiece, a bigger platform with social media. I mean, look at the Mets. You look at Stroman.

Even Cindergarde. I mean, Cindergarde's very vocal, very active on social media. You can definitely use it to your advantage. You can even use it to your advantage in free agency to market yourself. Look at Trevor Bauer and his agent, Lubba. I mean, they market him so well. And that is one of their main problems with MLB is their lack of marketing their players compared to NBA or NFL and the amount of media that's available on Twitter and social media. That's what Bauer likes to talk about is we're behind the times.

Behind the other teams. We need to market better. And that's what he's doing with himself. Well, I got him going to San Diego. You're thinking Boston. We'll see if Kine Bloom pulls the trigger there. Another guy that Boston's been looking at, at least has been floated in Toronto especially, John Morosio reported. that George Springer has been engaged in talks with the Toronto Blue Jays.

And the Toronto Blue Jays, we know, they're a young squad. They got Vladigie, they got Bijo, they got Boba Chet, and they got Paulson too coming up, who's a really stud starter, who had his season cut short. But he averages nearly triple digits with his fastball, has good breaking stuff. And then we saw Teoska Hernandez had a really, really breakout year last year for that team. And they really surprised some people. I know it was an expanded playout, but there weren't too many people that had Toronto making

a postseason. And they did. And I think they're ahead of schedule. And right now, if you're looking at the team like the Blue Jays that want to sign a guy like George Springer, he's a World Series MVP, perennial All-Star, he was on track last year. I was looking at the numbers here. He hit 265 last year with 14 home runs. Which average wise, that's up for him. That's up. You know, he's a low average guy, which kind of, kind of fits into this era baseball of just thump and slugging and just hit the ball over the fence. Yeah. And that's a 162 game pace of 44 home runs, 101 RBIs.

And by the way, he's a leadoff hitter. That's coming out of a leadoff spot and he was eclipsing 100 RBI. That's pretty impressive. And if you're in Toronto, you have three outfielders out there. You have Gritchick, Hernandez and Inguriel, too. So one of those guys would have to, you know, in a best case scenario you signed spring. And one of those guys would have to fill in into that DH role maybe or maybe even the fourth outfielder role. But you know it.

You need depth. If you want to make a postseason run, you need depth, especially in the outfield. One guy goes down, that can change your season. We saw it last year with San Diego with their pitching staff. All it takes is one guy to go down. So we're seeing Springer get some talks. There were reports, too, that he doesn't want to be back in Houston. So maybe he does go to Toronto.

Maybe he goes to Boston. Again, he's another guy where he can fit on 30 different teams. So it's anybody's best guess to where he's going to end up. But Toronto could be interesting. I think Toronto is a very good fit. The Rodgers center, the ball flies like crazy. It's a really good place. And he's not your typical leadoff hitter either.

This guy's up there hacking at the first pitch a lot in the game. You see pitchers not giving him fastball's first pitch of the game. And that's with analytics and everything, showing how much the percentages of him swinging at the first pitch. And you're seeing guys throwing hooks up there first pitch of the game. It just blows my mind. Because of that Granky start him off with a start last one. It's been four straight changeups to start the game.

Do you blame them? Do you blame them? No, not at all. Not at all. But to look at that young group in Toronto and how much potential they have and how high their ceiling is with guys who grew up in Big League clubhouses with Biggio and Guerrero, Bichet, I mean, that's an advantage. And then to bring in a veteran who's won, he knows how to win.

He's been on these teams. He's been an All-Star. Like, this guy, he's a stunt. Like, you need him. You need that leader. in your clubhouse when you're that young. I'll tell you that much. I was lucky enough when I was a rookie with Boston in 2012,

we were loaded with veterans. So I didn't have, like, there's no pressure on me. I'm the young guy. I'm the only guy with, like, under three years of service time. So, you know, I'm running errands and carrying bags and everything, getting people food. That was my job as the rookie. But at the same time, I learned so much just sitting back watching

and having guys pull me aside, Big Poppy, Kevin Euclis, Padroia, Ellsbury, like all these guys like, hey, bud, this is how we do things, this is how we dress, this is how you carry yourself, this is how you work in the cage. Things I would have never known had I been on a very young team like Toronto with no veteran leadership. So he would get there, but I can also see him fitting in. I can see him taking less money to go to the Red Sox because New Britain, Connecticut, diehard Red Sox fan his entire life, went to Yukon. and my wife's from Connecticut.

So Connecticut's cut in half. You're either a Yankees fan. We're either a Yankees fan or Red Sox fan. And there's like a couple Mets fans like sprinkled in, which is my father-in-law. But, you know. It's your father-in-law. Yeah.

But he was die-hard Red Sox. And I'll tell you, I played for the Rangers one year. I spent more than half the year in AAA with them before I got to the big leagues before I got called up. But I grew up going to Rangers games. And it was always my dream as a kid to play for the Rangers because that's the team that's in front of you. You can go watch them and sit in the stands. Gabe Kapler played for him.

He threw me a ball in the stands, sitting by the dog. These are memories I'll always have. So coming up, I'm like, man, that'd be really cool one day to play for that team. And that's the Red Sox for George Springer. So I guarantee he will take less money to go play there. I know we already have a lot of East Coast bias going with this podcast with you, JBJ. and we already started off with Springer, and then we talked about Bauer, too.

But I'm going to go one more, and I'm going to say J.A.T. Reum, you two, who I think is a great fit for the Mets, you just mentioned. I think he's a great fit. They had Wilson Ramos back there behind a dish to the past couple years. He was criticized multiple times

by not only writers and fans, but some of his own players and his teammates. They say he just didn't do the job behind the dish. Framing-wise, blocking-wise, just didn't do the job. Really great hitter. He was probably best in his designated hitter role whenever the Mets had that designated hitter option.

Behind a dish, they were more willing to put Thomas Nito back there. I think J.T. Romuto, who I'm looking at is catching numbers, and he was in Major League Baseball and his defensive rating, and his frame rating was 10th. So he's not only a great hitter, and by the way, since he made his debut in 2015, he leads all catchers, all qualified catchers. He leads him in hits, RBI, Extra Base hits, and he's fourth in home run.

So he's the best catcher in baseball right now, when you're talking about the complete catcher. I think he's a great, especially for a guy like the owner, Steve Cohen, he wants to make a splash, he wants to win right away. He mentioned that in this press conference. I think he's a great fit for New York. Yeah, not only he's one of the best catchers in the game, he's just one of the best players in the game.

I mean, he stills bases. He hits for average. I mean, he hits for power. He's got an absolute cannon behind the plate. You know, his percentage of throwing guys out super high, one of the highest in the league, too. So do I see him fitting in in New York? I do.

I do. I think you're right. I try to find a way to finagle my way into putting him on a different team just to go against you because that's fun. But I think the Mets is the best is the best fit. I mean, they're not giving contracts to Ramos or Torino's to letting them go. They're letting them walk. So who else? There's a couple other guys on the 40 man.

but if you're a team looking to sign players and win your division and compete in the postseason, you have to go get remito. You do. They're going to do everything they can to sign them, but so is Philly. So is Philly. But Philly's hands are tied because we know how much money they have tied up in Areeta, Harper, obviously. I mean, Harper's money is ridiculous. So their hands are pretty tied as far as given out a $200 million deal, which Remuto is probably looking for.

I think remode Rermuda is a guy too that just brings everybody together which is what the Mets 100%. He's a leader. The Mets has a goal he's going to be going to play D1 quarterback like you're not you don't do that without having really good leadership qualities.

The Mets have talent. That's the thing. They've had talent for years. I mean, you took a look at their pitching staff or lineup you go around the infield. I mean, Pete Alonza, a rookie of the year, Jacob de Grombe, two times Salyang, or consecutive Scyon, go to their outfield and they had Cessbitist when he was in his

prime. Jeff McNeil, I mean, he's... But then you got Michael Confort. I mean, there's talent across the board there. There really is.

It's about health for them, number one. And then with, you know, you have a bit tantas in the bullpen. You have Diaz, who is one of the most lively,

explosive arms in baseball, and he's just so domed up. He's so... He doesn't go out there and pitch to win. He goes out there, like, trying not to screw up. But his stuff is so good that

if he could literally just aim middle and let that fastball run and then throw a 90 mile per slider off of it and he would be just fine. But he tries to be too fine and just pitch to the corners. This is for a whole other conversation about the Mets, but back to your point, they're loaded with so much talent and there's such a high ceiling for that team, especially if they're able to sign JT, sign Bauer, all of a sudden their World Series contenders in my mind. So we're going to go our last guy here before we, I don't want to keep Jackie

waiting too long. We got Marcel Azuna, who's out there, and we already talked about the existence or non-existence of the designated hitter in Major League Baseball. Will there be a universal VH? He thrived with Atlanta last year. He was one category short of the Triple Crown. And I know it was a condensed season. I know it was only 60 games. But he was third in batting average.

That was how he came up short in the Triple Crown. Batting every. And he hit 334, which he's not very good, obviously, because he didn't even win a Triple Crown. there's been one guy since the turn of the century to have a triple crown. That was Mickey Cabrera. This guy did it. This guy did it. And he was kind of the guy that was able to provide protection for guys like

Freddie Freeman, who went on to winning MVP, Ronald Acuna, Ozzy Obbies. That lineup's legit. He just signed Charlie Morton, obviously. But where do you think Marcelo Zuna fits with Atlanta or possibly with some other team? So obviously Atlanta's going to push to get him back, but I got him going to the White Sox. I think he fits in really well there. I think there's a need for his bat, regardless of the rules, it's an AL team.

So he's going to be able to DH. And I think that's considering the decline in his production defensively, he used to be really good. He had a cannon. He was a gold glover. He was a really good left fielder. And whether it's injuries or it's in his head or a combination of the two, he's a liability on defense now.

We talked about this a little bit the other day is when it comes the ninth inning bottom of the ninth you don't want him in left field you don't want the runner game winning run on second base and a line drive hit the left you're going to get a little nervous on that but you need his bat in the lineup in the ninth inning so he's a perfect dh spot and i think chicago because we see how young they are we see how many young super budding superstars uh latin guys who are on that team and if there's one thing i've noticed coming up, for those really young Latin players, there has to be a Latin veteran voice for them because they can relate to each other. They grew up the same. They're in a foreign country

playing. They're away from their families. And they're like, really, look at that team. They have guys that are in their early 20s who really haven't been over in the states that long. And it can be uncomfortable. So to have a veteran player like that come in and guide those those players and give them just a leadership voice who, like I said, it's relatable, would be really good for that team because we know how talented they are, especially offensively. Hey, you mentioned his defense. He hasn't had a positive output in defensive war since 2015. So I think the gloves pretty much gone. He's going to have to be a DH somewhere. I have him going to Atlanta if the DH stays. I have him going to Chicago. I'm totally with you.

I think he's a great fit for Chicago if there is no, or if there is no DH in the National League. We'll have to wait to see. We have Jackie Bradley on deck here. So we're going to catch our breath a little bit here. And we'll be back with you with the World Series champ All-Star. And now he's on the market. So Jackie Bradley Jr. coming up next. I welcome back to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast.

I am very proud, very happy, very excited to welcome Jackie Bradley Jr. Outfielder formerly for the Boston Red Sox. Now he is one of the most sought after for agents out there, according to CBS Sports.com. Jackie, and not only are you on the free agent market now, but you're actually expecting a child pretty soon, too. So you are expecting some acquisitions into your family. Is that right?

Very much so. Any day now. Due date is tomorrow. So we will. We're going to see. Hey, baby. Hey, what's up? Dad.

You're going to be on our next episode, okay? I promise. You'll be the next episode, okay? Okay. This is real life right here, Danny. Go check old mommy. Daddy's going to get this done right quick, and I'll be right back. Of course.

I have one sleeping right now and another one on the way to nap time. I'm good to go for the next two hours. This is great. This is great to see the whole family. Little one do very, very soon. We're excited. Obviously, my daughter's very excited. I know where you are, baby.

And, you know, it's going to be fun. It's going to be a different experience. Well, let me ask you this, since we're talking about families, we're talking about for agency here. How does that play into it? Because you obviously have another child on the way. You're an East Coast guy. I grew up in Virginia with the South Carolina for college,

obviously played a lot of your ball through the Red Sox organization. How does that play into your district? decision making over these next couple weeks because there's been some West Coast teams that have been floated around Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants that have been interested in you, but you've been an East Coast guy your entire life. How does the way your family is going right now and your home life and how you grew up, how does that play into your decision making over these next couple weeks? It's obviously something that we're going to always, you know, think about. and I think as a whole we want to get as much information as we can that way we can weigh out our options and see what we feel is best for not only me but as my family for a whole because you know maybe when I was younger in my career where you know things didn't really matter as much but now that I'm actually getting to make a decision I want to make a decision for for my family and in its best interest.

Yeah, so talking about free agency. Let's talk about a Twitter conversation you had with Trevor Bauer a few days ago about this long throw. Is it just a long throw competition? Because if I remember correctly, I saw in person you throw a ball from right next to the home plate over the center field fence at Fenway. I think it was in 2014. Yeah, I was in 2014. It was our last year together. Yeah, that's a little.

So humble, you know the exact date in time you threw that ball over the fence. No, no, no, no. I think the correct answer was which time. It was more than once. Great point. Great point. I did throw it on the-locked arm. I'll tell you that much.

On Utah Street in Baltimore, Utah Street in Baltimore from home plate. I actually told David Ortiz that I would, I said, David, I'll give you this one around right here. I will, I will throw my ball farther. My arm was feeling good that day. So I said, I will throw my ball farther than you can hit one during BP right now. This is David Ortiz. And he said, is that right? Is that right?

Is that right, join you? Is that right? So needless to say, I did throw it farther than him that round for his BP. And I threw it on the Utah Street. I think I won a hop or too hot the building. Now, that's impressive because I was telling Danny earlier, I was in the cul-de-sac. with my neighbors. My game days are a little different now. I'm only two years, you know, outside, away from the game, but I played catch for like 30 minutes with a football outside

yesterday. This morning, I could barely brush my teeth. My shoulder. I mean, I'm 32. I'm not that old. Right. I mean, in baseball years, I guess I would be getting up there, but man, it just shows how special you guys are to be able to throw baseball that far. I could never throw baseball that far, but I could maybe roll one. to the fence. I couldn't do it like you. That's for sure. Oh, stop it. You could throw Will. You got a cannon. But obviously, you know, with things, the more you do it, the more your body's going to

stay used to it. And, you know, when you stop doing it, it starts going down. So I'm going to keep doing as much as possible. Talk about doing as much as possible. And you're saying you have a kid coming here at any time, really. last year let's rewind to last year at david ortees's uh charity golf event uh it was down here in miami or in cubis game and you had just started playing golf right yeah we were like a month or two years ago yeah last i just started um last year october when i just started yeah and now every time i look at your instagram or your twitter or whatever social media you're on

you golf every day all right and you're texting me 80s you're texting me 80s today, 81 today. That's impressive because you've been playing for two years, really. No, no, not even, not even. Not even, 13 months. Yeah, 13 months. That's insane. But there's a lot of bad scores in there, too.

Just don't text me. No, I'll gladly text you those. I promise you. Just the inconsistencies of it, just when you're learning the nuances of the game. it's a difficult sport. And it's hard to repeat it day in and day out. Just as much as I shot that 81, I shot a 98 the following day. Obviously it was a different sport.

That's golf, though. And you're playing some tough courses too. Down here, we both live in Florida. There's some crazy courses over there on your side. I had a little golf trip over there last year with my buddy for like two days and we played a couple courses. They're pristine. So you're pretty lucky on that front.

You're not playing these beat up public, public, tracks that I'm playing on this side of the state. That's very, very true. There's a lot of water, too, and gators, too. I'm sure y'all saw the video of that giant dinosaur at Valencia. I actually play there quite a bit, too. So I don't know if I'll be going back there anytime soon. Well, Jackie, we're talking about training, training for golf.

How about training for baseball? Obviously, this last year has been tough for everyone involved. From the pandemic to the fight for social justice, there's been so many different, for lack of a better term, distractions and noise coming from everywhere, you didn't seem to miss a beat. You had one of your best hitting seasons at the dish, whereas your teammate, J.D. Martinez, he mentioned he was struggling because he wasn't able to use the technology that was normally available to some of these players. For a guy like yourself, how were you able to find so much success this year, despite all the

noise, all the distractions, so much going on outside of the diamond? I honestly just kind of putting things in perspective knowing that I had a had a job to do obviously the season shortened and you know for a lot of us it could be real easy to come up with an excuse so to speak you know that's a shortened you know we're not having fans in the stands well yes those those are all true but At some point, you're going to have to adapt. And I wanted to make sure that I came to the field every single day, prepared just like it was any normal season. That way I can perform to the best of my capabilities day in and day out and help my team win. How much did playing in a contract year affect your day-to-day activity? Because everybody talks about it, there's more pressure, there's more everything.

and that's obviously with the pandemic going on and everything. And now all of a sudden you're thrust into this season and you're in a contract year, but this year is only going to be 60 games. How did that play into your day to day and how you went about your business this year? I literally kept pretty much the same. There was really nothing that I, I guess, technically did different.

I just tried to, like I said, just help my team to the best of my abilities. You know, obviously, I know it's the contract year. The team knows it's a contract year. So just focus on the things that I can control and kind of going from there. So I think, you know, we talked about no fans in the stands. And obviously, I played in Boston with you. I played there for three years.

And was it easier with no fans in the stand at Boston, considering how this season went for you guys? And it was a tough year. and I've been a part of last place teams in Boston, and it is really hard mentally to every day take the field and know you're going to get moved for seven innings, at least seven innings. They'll give you two innings to see if you're going to play well.

And then after that first debat or first time you give up some runs, they're letting you hear it. And it can be tough because it's a really tough place to play mentally. It becomes a grind, especially if things, it's a great place. people ask me to explain it and I say it is the best place to play well and win and it is the worst place to struggle and lose and you understand that better than anybody so I guess my question is it was it a little easier this year considering it was an empty stadium um as we as we all know

baseball isn't easy um at all period so you know the actual playing baseball part wasn't easy um But I guess you have that sense of peace when there's no body, I guess, yelling or, you know, sometimes people feed off that. And I just try to stay within my own zone and try to kind of compete within myself. I personally don't, I guess, feed off of certain energy just because what happens when that energy is not there. I've got to come up with something from within side to be able to continue it going. So I just tried to, you know, pull from within side. And like I always keep saying, kind of focus on what I could control and perform. Well, let me ask you this.

We talk about Boston. We're talking about how there's a lot of pressure on Boston players, a lot of pressure on them to succeed. Have you at all? Because I believe you are a Florida guy. you're living in Florida down there now. Yeah. Are you looking at Tom Brady at all and saying, man, that guy's having a lot of fun for Tampa. He was in New England for how many years.

Tons of success, obviously. The goat, if you want to call him the goat. Have you looked at Tom Brady in seeing how much success he's having to Tampa, how much fun he's having? He's doing more endorsements. He's doing more off-the-field stuff, a little bit more Florida. Are you looking at Tom Brady and saying, man, that looks fun. And that could be a life I can enjoy. No, I haven't looked at him, I guess, in that particular way.

It's definitely been kind of fun to see him still be able to be great. And no matter what uniform he's in, I think that Spruits speaks a true testament to who he is. He's an amazing ball player. Obviously, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's the best, if one of the best, if not the best quarterback of all time. And he's going to make anyone better. He's going to make anyone great no matter where he is. But it's been fun to watch him still perform at a high level even with him.

He's closer to the end of his career than he is the beginning of his career because who knows, he might go another five to six years. That's a good point. Yeah, I think with the whole TB12 thing he's got going and he's built, when he was first saying I'm going to go to Tampa, I'm thinking, okay, there's got to be a reason. All right. His body's going to last longer in the heat and humidity than he would in New England playing in 25 degree and snowing. So there was definitely something behind that as far as his decision making.

But I think I can definitely speak on. So I played three years in Boston. I already said that. And then I went to San Diego, which it was like at the time was the polar opposite of playing in Boston. They didn't care about baseball in 2015 there. They didn't care about much other than going on the beach and surfing. That's what the baseball fans there. Baseball was on the back burner.

They hadn't had a good team in a while. And we put together a good team and went there and played all right. And then they broke the team out. But that's for another time. But the point I'm getting at was there was a sense of relief. I love playing in Boston. Boston. I love the pressure to win in Boston, but being able to go experience somewhere else, especially, like I said, the polar opposite was I didn't enjoy it as much. I enjoy being able to take a

breath and it was kind of a relief in terms of lack of pressure. But when you come up in Boston system and you, we both were drafted by Boston, we both got to the big leagues with Boston, that becomes normal. And then you go somewhere else thinking, okay, this is going to be perfect. I can get away from that craziness and that pressure. And then you just find yourself missing it. So I think where you're at in your career now in free agency, being arguably one of the best center fielderers in the game,

you're drafted in 2011. You get to the big leagues in 2013, 2014, beginning of 2015, like you're up and down. You're back and forth between Plotkut. Oh, yeah. I mean, it felt like 100. hundreds of times, right? Like, you knew that highway.

You know exactly how long it was going to take you from point A to point B. He didn't really get a lot of great opportunities to be an everyday guy, to get consistent at bats. And that's hard at that level to just play three days a week. And then they expect you to play well because that's how you earned spots in the lineup. But you didn't get that chance to really the second half of 2015 played well. And then obviously we know what you did in 2016, you know, made your first All-SAR team.

I expect more, Jackie, come on. I think you got more in you. But I guess my question is you going through that tough road to get where you are now and grinding it out and just not having an easy path to free agency or to have success. I think has that made you more grateful and more aware of everything around you and just kind of appreciate where you're at a lot more? 100%. You definitely get that, you know, that appreciation for, you know, all of the things that you've been through, the good, the bad. You see the people who are in your corner. You know, you really start to, you start to lean on people. You know, when you're first coming up, not many guys would say that they had to, I guess truly struggle in the game of baseball until they get to the big leagues.

Honestly, that's where I ever had my first true struggle in baseball. And then it's, you know, how can I make that adjustment? You know, I feel like I'm playing against guys that I've played with, you know, my whole career. And they're having success at the big league level. you know, what am I not doing and what can I not do or translate that I have been able to do already. And so it just becomes that mental battle and, you know, trying to do whatever it takes to not only better yourself, but to stay in the big leagues. So, you know, like you said, it was a tough stretch.

I'm glad that I went through it and I'm very thankful for all the opportunities that I did eventually end up getting and the people who have helped me along the way, teammates, coaches, family, mentors, it's meant a lot and it's made me a better ball player and a better person. Well, let me ask you this, Jackie.

You have so much more appreciation for the game. How about appreciation for, for agency or should I say, how has this process been? Because we're in a pandemic, you can't exactly travel to these different organizations and they give you the red carpet treatment like maybe they would have other years. What's it been like being a for agent during a pandemic right now? Have you talked to different teams so far? Because this for agency has been different. One, there's the budget's different for so many different teams. We don't really know how much these owners want to spend. From a player's perspective, what's these last,

last 30 plus days been like, have you been talking to any specific teams? Has your agent been able to travel and talk with different organizations to get a feel for what the market is for a guy like yourself? Yeah, I've definitely been able to, you know, hear from a couple teams. And, you know, that's good to know that there's definitely interest and, you know, interest from multiple teams. And, but I think as of right now, you know, things are kind of moving slow. As you can see, you look around and you see NBA, they're just bow, wow, wow. They're just making moves left and right. And I think we all kind of knew that baseball was going to be slow.

So over the past couple, like you said, 30 days or so, things have just been, I guess, kind of very chill, very relaxed. Haven't really heard, you know, much talk around the league right now. But for me, that's fine. I mean, you know, I'm a pretty patient guy. And that hasn't really been my main focus at the moment because, like you said, I have a little one who is going to be here imminently. And that's been my main focus, making sure I'm here for my family and all of the other stuff

is just going to take care of itself. Well, let me tell you, Jackie. We really appreciate you, man. And we're wrapping up time here, but my man Will here has some rapid-fire questions, just to kind of get to know you more because. We know you as a player. I want to know more about you as the person, so we'll go ahead and take it from me, man.

I will say I know the answer to most of these already, but the world doesn't. All right. Just nine questions, all right. All right, we're going to start here. All right. What golf clubs and golf balls are you play? In golf clubs, well, my driver is a Callaway Maverick.

And then from there on, I got the three-wood, tailor-made, sim, and all of my clubs are tailor-made P790s. Big time. All right. All right. Over under two days a week, you have Chick-fil-A. Over.

Over. I knew it. All right, all right, all right. Would you rather rob a homer to win a game or hit a hole in one? Well, I want to hit a hole in one now. I've robbed a couple of homers. I hope that doesn't hurt you. I'll give me a hole-in-one.

All right. If you had to be quarantined with one teammate, who and why? One teammate. Who and why? Past or present? Anybody? It can't be Will. We know that's not the answer.

That's not the answer. No, it definitely could be Will. Will. We've always connected day one. Yeah, let's go with Will for sure. Hey, that's an easy one. I'll take that. Thank you.

Yeah. All right. Favorite restaurant in Boston? And no, Chick-fil-A does not. count. Yeah, they don't really have that in Boston. Babe. Del Frisco. Oh, great voice. Del Frisco and Seaport. Fill me in on that. What is that? Is that pasta? No, it's a steak place, but it is unbelievable. It's so good. It's like on the second floor there, right? Yeah. Oh, it's right there. It's not too far from like legal seafood. Yep.

Jerry Remy had a place out there. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's like the new area in Boston. Yeah, see what. All right. I got four more for you. Holidays right around the corner. What's the best gift you've ever received? I'm putting you on the spot. The best gift I've ever received.

That's a hard one. That's a tough one. We should have asked him this after he got his big contract, right? Great point. No, I believe my wife has gotten me a couple gifts each year during Christmas that were very, very family, sentimental. values, you know, stuff that I could hold on to that I'm going to obviously remember for the rest of my life, whether it was, our anniversary is not too far. It's December 7th. So, things like that. Like, I'm more of an experience type person, things that I can really

remember more so than a material type thing. So, you know, I love like the things that's always dealing kind of with my family. Very cool. All right. Is there a TV show you're locked into right now? Actually, right now I'm in my wife or rewatching every single season of the amazing race. Okay. We're watching the one that's live right now.

And we decided, like, you know, we like this show so much that we're going to go back all through the seasons and we watch every single one of them. All right. Two more. Favorite walkout song you've ever had? Favorite walkout song? I've got a few. They just don't know by...

I knew you were going to say that, by the way. Yeah? I remember it. Yeah, you had that one back. By the gift. You were first in the big leagues. Yeah, they just don't know by the gift. Mm-hmm.

All right, last one. What's one thing on your bucket list? I want to go to New Zealand Oh I want to go An all blacks game right Huh You got to go to one of the all blacks games

Yeah Yeah I want to So I want a vacation in New Zealand That's that's on the bucket list Oof Now that's on mine, thank you Yeah

All right man This was awesome Thanks so much man No thank y'all I appreciate y'all We're going to take a break here On the fantasy baseball today podcast But one more thank you

to Jackie Bradley Jr. GMs, you know this man. Come get your own man. He's available. He's on the market. Come get you man. Jackie, thanks so much, man. I appreciate it. Any time, Danny. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, brother. That was great. J.B.J. is the man. J.B.J., I mean, he's out there. You know what you're going to get out of him. You're going to get a great fielding center fielder, a guy with an absolute cannon. You know what you're going to get with the bat. He may not be your three, four hitter, but he's going to give you everyday good at bats. You know what you're going to get out of a guy like JBJ. He's had interest from the Houston Astros.

and just to return to the Red Sox, too, and even to Toronto Blue Jays. We'll see where he ends up. But obviously, the family is going to be a factor in his decision-making. And I know you can relate to that, Will, because you've been around the place. You've been around the minor leagues. You've been around the major leagues. How did your family in the way that you were going up through the system and you were going up when you're getting into your mid-20s, upper-20s, how did that play into your decision-making when you were figuring out where you were supposed to play?

Because I know you're just starting a family now with your two kids, but I'm sure you were starting to think about the wheels were turning. Oh, for sure. You want to be in, you're going to, as a free agent, you're going to go take visits to these teams that are really, you may not even tell the teams that you're taking these visits, but you want to go see the town. You want to go see around the stadium where you might live. Can your family be there with you? He's going to have two young kids. He's going to have a four-year-old and then a newborn baby boy. So, I mean, that's number one in your list. Yes, there's baseball. That's your job. You're a big leaguer. I get that. But as we see with Jackie, how just genuine and how much he loves his family. You know, that comes first, all right? I think he goes to Houston if we're going to get into it. I really think he can really contribute to that. Roxy Bomb. Roxy Bomb.

You know what? Springer is going to be gone. They're going to have to replace them. If you can play center field at Fenway, which is really tough dimensions to play as a fielder, he can handle. the field in Houston. I think he's going to be great there.

I think it'd be a great fit for Houston. I think very similar to the way you talked about Toronto with George Springer. I think he can serve that same role with Toronto because he might not be as good of a hitter as Springer, just being frank, he probably isn't. But he's just as good of a fielder and probably way a better fielder than George Springer. And I think he can serve that veteran role and provide leadership for that squad. I think either of those work. But yeah, I agree.

I could see Springer and J.B.J. Flip, Flop, Red Sox. Castro too. So we'll see. We'll have to wait to see as David Samson likes to say. So hey, thank you guys so much for joining us. This was our first episode here on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Broxie, my co-host, Danny Vetti, your host of today show. We'll be back to next Wednesday and we have a lot of good stuff planned. We got Adam Jones planned on making an appearance. We got a lot of good guests. We'll be with you guys every Wednesday

in December. The regular Fantasy Baseball today crew led by Frank. We'll be back doing in regular episodes too. A special thank you to Eric Kay, Ben Shreger, Frank, everybody at the Fantasy of Baseball today in the podcast realm. Thank you guys for allowing us to take over and take over the podcast for these next couple Wednesdays. So for Will, Danny, thank you guys for joining. This is the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast.