BOSTON — Major league managers cannot vote for their own players on the Gold Glove ballot. If they could, however, John Farrell’s center field selection wouldn’t take any thought.
The Boston Red Sox skipper said Sunday, in no uncertain terms, that Jackie Bradley Jr. is the best in the business when it comes to glovework.
“The higher number of balls are going to be in center field, and I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a better defender than Jackie Bradley in center field,” Farrell said before the Red Sox’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays, “whether it’s in our uniform or anybody’s uniform in the major leagues. I think he’s the best center fielder in the game.”
The problem, at least at this point in his career, is that Bradley is a one-dimensional player — renowned for his defense but maligned for his performance at the plate. The rookie’s poor hitting (.216/.288/.290 in 114 games this season) resulted in a demotion last month to Triple-A Pawtucket, where he spent 14 games before being recalled by the big club Friday.
Whether these factors should sway voters’ opinion of Bradley is up for debate, but it’s clear that players who put up better numbers — and certainly those who spend the whole season in the majors — are more likely to garner Gold Glove votes than their offensively challenged counterparts.
“Oh, gosh,” Farrell said when asked if Bradley has a legitimate shot at winning the award this season. “I don’t know. As someone who votes on those, I don’t know how others might look at the break in service time. He’d get my vote, from what we’ve seen.”
Bradley entered Saturday night’s win over the Blue Jays as a defensive replacement and got the start in center field in Sunday’s series finale. Though the final month of the season will be largely meaningless for the Red Sox, it will be anything but for Bradley, who will look to separate himself from the team’s logjam of outfielders entering 2015.
Photo via Twitter/@SInow
