The Boston Red Sox Thursday, October 1, 2020 * The Boston Globe Jackie Bradley Jr. is eager to look back, but just as eager about whatever’s coming next Julian McWilliams Jackie Bradley Jr. strolled into Thornton’s Fenway Grille late Monday morning. Despite a black mask and black Under Armour hat, the workers still noticed the center fielder. He’s been going there for years. It’s a favorite spot of Bradley and his wife, Erin — she loves their spicy breakfast potatoes, Bradley the cinnamon French toast and the syrup. The syrup, he says, doesn’t soak up the bread too much, allowing it to maintain its crispness. He greeted the workers before turning over his left shoulder to ask where his companion wanted to sit. Bradley then paused for a moment. “Let’s sit outside.” Despite gray skies and potential rain, Bradley had a lot to soak in just a day after his season ended. The Red Sox are all Bradley’s ever known. It was the organization that drafted him in the first round out of the University of South Carolina in 2011, that saw him steamroll through the minors, set spring training on fire in ’13, and earn an Opening Day roster spot only to see him fall flat. It was the team that saw him struggle, then succeed, then struggle some more. Then succeed some more. Then struggle again. Nine years later, Bradley is entering free agency. It’s a moment that, depending upon who you ask, many suspected he wouldn’t reach, at least with the Red Sox. This was a feat. “This is a big deal,” Bradley said. “Once you first get to the big leagues, your goal is, ‘How can I stick in the big leagues?’ And then once you finally get your feet under you, it’s like, ‘Alright, well, if I get three years, I get to arbitration.’ You get three years [and] arbitration, it’s like, the next step is, ‘Alright, well, how can I get to free agency?’ ” Bradley calls this the final stage, or close to it. His last goal is to get to 10 years in the big leagues, which will allow him the maximum Major League Baseball pension once he retires. “It’s just a special, special achievement because it’s such a hard thing to do," he said, between bites of that French toast, eggs, bacon, and those potatoes (of which he sent Erin a picture). "Yeah. And, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of things in between that, you know, help you get there.” A number of those people who helped him showed up on his phone that morning. There was a text from Fred Lynn, congratulating Bradley with a picture of the pair posing with Bradley’s 2018 Gold Glove. Dustin Pedroia texted as well, calling Bradley the ultimate professional who battled through the ups and downs. And, of course, there was the FaceTime call from his Erin and their daughter, Emerson, showing off the latter’s skills on the harmonica. This was part of the village that helped keep Bradley going when the times were both tough and good. Particularly in 2014. Despite being on the big-league club due to a Shane Victorino injury, Bradley kept his apartment in Pawtucket near the Sox' Triple A affiliate just in case he got sent back down. (He spent all but two and a half weeks in late summer with Boston.) Bradley, in a season where he hit just .198, would make the hour drive to Fenway each day alongside Erin. “Erin and I would just sit in the car in just complete and utter silence,” Bradley said. “I was just completely baffled or angered by the way I had performed. It weighed on me heavy.” In a way, this is his victory lap. He emerged from his darkest hours as a Gold Glover, All-Star, ALCS MVP, and World Series champion. Now, a free agent. A polarizing figure in Boston who received his fair share of criticism throughout his tenure. “You know, as much crap as I got from the people, the fans or whoever it may be,” Bradley explained, “what they could possibly say to me wouldn’t affect me more than how I felt — what I knew I was capable of doing. In a way, I never forgot it. I never forgot it. You will always remember the things that were said to you. The things that were brought up. But, you know, but how do you use that? How do you go about it? How do you learn from that?” Bradley turned his chair toward the street. In a sense, admiring the road that he’s traveled and what he’s built. The playground across the street from Thornton’s is where he used to take Emerson. The Bradley family will grow even more soon; Erin is due next month with their second child, Jackie Bradley III. Bradley, too, has grown, and remained authentically himself. He’s frugal, driving the same white Cadillac CTS-V he bought when he was drafted. It has roughly 99,000 miles on it — miles of doubt, miles of happiness. Like Bradley, though, it’s lasted. “You know, a lot of people like to say they’re proving people wrong or their critics wrong,” Bradley said. “I come from the mold where I like to prove to the people that support me, that love me, my family. I like to prove them right.” Bradley’s mostly been getting around on foot the last two weeks or so. He shipped off his car, and the scooter he rode every day to Fenway. It’s provided him a different way to soak up the city he’s called home. The relationship he’s cultivated in the organization, and outside of it. There’s no telling where Bradley might end up next season. Even in a pandemic-plagued year, he’s excited to go through this free-agent process. There are scenarios he must weigh, like how valuable he could be in another ballpark besides Fenway, where his fielding capabilities are limited due to the dimensions. Imagine if he had even more room to run? “I would love to see Jackie play center field in a big outfield like Colorado,” former teammate David Price said during a phone conversation. “Where you can get to see him run around and get to see him be reckless in the outfield. I always just enjoyed it when we went on the road, just because being able to watch our outfield play the outfield in a different park.” Around 2 p.m., it began to drizzle, prompting Bradley to pull out his phone and check the radar. He glanced up toward the Boston sky before looking back down. “Oh, yeah. It’s about to rain until 4 o’clock," he said. "Let’s get out of here.” He had soaked in enough. How will the Red Sox alter their roster in response to a last-place finish? Here’s what the precedent says Alex Speier How will the Red Sox forge a path forward? Precedent suggests the answer is obvious: The Red Sox have responded to past last-place finishes with free agent binges. After the 2012 mess, the club re-signed David Ortiz, then added eight mid-tier free agents on one- to three- year deals, a veteran bridge that produced a championship. That offseason balanced short- and long-term interests. The Sox didn’t sign any players who required the sacrifice of a draft pick, while the addition of veterans bought time for a young core to develop in the upper minors. The 2014 campaign, in which the offense cratered, resulted in an ill-fated spree on position players. The Sox invested more than $250 million on Rusney Castillo, Pablo Sandoval, and Hanley Ramirez. The consequences of those signings were not only felt in their poor play, but in the two 2015 draft picks (roughly the Nos. 50 and 75 selections) sacrificed to sign Sandoval and Ramirez, both of whom received qualifying offers. Without the draft-pool money from those picks, the team passed on Nick Madrigal, who was selected by Cleveland in the 17th round but didn’t sign because he was looking for a bonus more in line with an early- round pick. After playing at Oregon State, Madrigal was the No. 4 overall pick in 2018, and is now starting for the White Sox in the playoffs. After another last-place finish in 2015, in which young talent fueled a promising six-week season-ending kick, the Sox signed David Price to a record-setting seven-year, $217 million contract — making the decision to spend big rather than trade away young talent, while also steering clear of free agents who would require sacrificing a draft pick. In each instance, the Sox committed more than $100 million — and after both 2014 and 2015, more than $200 million — in guaranteed contracts to address their roster deficiencies. History points to a franchise that doesn’t sit still in the face of embarrassment. It’s not a given that history can be repeated after a year when Fenway Park remained empty for baseball games and lost a summer slate of concerts, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding the resumption of mass gatherings in 2021. Nonetheless, Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy said the team can afford, to some degree, to look beyond its short-term losses. On the other side of the pandemic, MLB has huge revenue increases in the form of new national TV deals that will take effect starting in 2022, while there is a long-term expectation that spectator sports will begin anew.