The Boston Red Sox Wednesday, December 30, 2020 * The Boston Globe Jackie Bradley Jr. is taking a patient approach in free agency Julian McWilliams Sleep is at a minimum for outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. these days. On Dec. 3, Bradley and his wife, Erin, received an early Christmas gift when they welcomed their second child, Jackie Bradley III, into the world. That has been Bradley’s main focus, even though he’s a free agent in a market that has been extremely slow to this point. “I’ve always been, you know, of the mind-set that everything will work out the way it should,” Bradley said. “It’s honestly been about being home with my family at the moment, especially with a newborn, so we’re kind of adjusting and adapting.” Bradley has taken a measured and patient approach to this free agency period. He also has kept a realistic one. Bradley knows the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding 2021 could make this even more of a drawn-out process. “Writers, players, whoever it may be — owners — kind of knew it was going to be a slow offseason,” Bradley said. “I feel like everybody is kind of trying to get more information about what’s going to go on with the pandemic. Making sure that everybody’s protected in a certain way. So we ... forecast the flow, but it’ll pick up when it does.” In Bradley’s case, things might start to pick up when George Springer, the most coveted free agent outfielder, signs. But Bradley is garnering a decent amount of interest. The Red Sox certainly weren’t shy about expressing theirs, with general manager Brian O’Halloran stating recently that Bradley is “definitely on our radar.” The two sides have had contact, Bradley said. His good season in 2020 — .283/.364/.450 with 7 homers in 217 plate appearances — certainly didn’t diminish the Sox’ interest in bringing him back. Yet Bradley knows there’s a difference between conversing with a club and a deal being made. “Things will happen when it does,” Bradley said. “We’ll all find out. We’ll see what’s really dialoguing and what’s going to come to fruition.” Bradley, who will be 31 in April, is adamant that he’s on the better side of 30. Even though last season was just 60 games, he truly believes he has figured something out at the plate. Some of that revolves around him not caring so much about exit velocity, and in turn just making contact and getting hits, even if they’re “cheap.” ‘“I’ve always been, you know, of the mindset that everything will work out the way it should. ... It’s honestly been about being home with my family at the moment, especially with a newborn, so we’re kind of adjusting and adapting.”’ Jackie Bradley Jr. It helped to simplify his approach at the plate in 2020, he said, and he plans on taking that into next season. There are places that might be a fit for Bradley. The Phillies are in need of an outfielder. Former Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski now is president of baseball ops in Philadelphia. Though Bradley’s name was thrown around in trade talks, Dombrowski never pulled the trigger during his Boston tenure. The Blue Jays and Astros also present interesting cases for pursuing Bradley. That time will come when it comes, as Bradley pointed out. In the meantime, he had daddy duties this week, along with a quick breather at the golf course near his home in Naples, Fla. When asked if he would name any teams beyond the Red Sox who had interest, Bradley offered a shrewd answer. “I don’t want to give up all my cards,” he said. “There’s definitely interest, and I’m very thankful that there is.” * The Boston Herald Red Sox have decision to make with Andrew Benintendi Jason Mastrodonato Three years ago this month, the Miami Marlins traded their 26-year-old left fielder with two years left of team control and a bat that was finally showing its potential for four prospects, three of them pitchers. Marcell Ozuna was shipped to St. Louis, where he put up two mediocre seasons for the Cardinals before he hit the free agent market, where he now finds himself once again. It worked out just fine for the Marlins, who landed flamethrower Sandy Alcantara (3.71 ERA since the deal), Daniel Castana (3.03 ERA), Zac Gallen (2.78 ERA) and outfielder Magneuris Sierra (.576 OPS). Why is this trade relevant to the Red Sox this winter? They’ve got their own 26-year-old left fielder with two years left of team control, but a bat that hasn’t yet lived up to its potential, in Andrew Benintendi. As the Red Sox continue to search the free agent market and consider their options via trade, Benintendi’s name sure comes up often. He’s far from an integral member of the Sox’ organization, but can be. They don’t have a lot of big league pieces that are both expendable and valuable, but Benintendi is both of those. They don’t have a deep enough farm system to be digging into. And they already have a pair of corner outfielders on their roster in Alex Verdugo and Hunter Renfroe. Verdugo is an everyday player, not a platoon player, as he showed quite clearly in 2020. Baring an unlikely scenario in which Verdugo is the everyday center fielder, Renfroe’s platoon at-bats should be coming at the expense of Benintendi, who has a career .691 OPS against lefties and could use the respite. The Red Sox will need another outfielder, preferably one who can play center field quite well. This position will be crowded. So what do they do? Trade Benintendi and try to add some young pitching depth to their organization? Or hold onto the former No. 7 overall pick and hope his sweet swing from the left side is about to bust out after a lost year due to a rib cage injury? That all depends on the return that chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is able to fetch. It’s not a perfect time to be dealing a left-handed hitting outfielder, given there are a few good ones on the free agent market in Michael Brantley, Joc Pederson and, yes, Jackie Bradley Jr. There is one key difference between Benintendi (career .789 OPS) and Ozuna (.786 OPS before he was traded). While Benintendi is coming off his worst career season, Ozuna was coming off a near-MVP season in 2017: .312 average, .924 OPS, 37 homers and a Gold Glove in left field. But while Ozuna was never ranked better than a No. 75 overall prospect by Baseball America and struggled to impress during his first four big league seasons, Benintendi was once the unanimous No. 1 prospect in baseball and has 3½ very good seasons on his resume already. What Ozuna showed in results, many believe Benintendi has in potential. It’s interesting to look back at Cardinals’ general manager John Mozeliak’s comments about Ozuna when the team acquired him. It sounds as if he could be talking about Benintendi. “Whenever I watched him, I was like, ‘he could be so good,’” Mozeliak said of Ozuna at the time. “I always sort of wondered why he wasn’t. What do great players do that other players don’t? When they do things, they make it look easy. He always had a quick bat, would hit the ball hard, and I always just sort of wondered why he didn’t do more.” And here’s what Bloom said of Benintendi at the end of his injury-plagued 2020 season: “This is a guy who has shown the ability to perform at a really high level, including in some really critical situations. Still young. Still has all that ability. It’s just a shame his year kind of got wiped out.” Red Sox manager Alex Cora got the best out of Benintendi in 2018, but oversaw his drop-off in ’19. “When this kid got drafted, he was probably the best hitting prospect coming out of college,” Cora said recently. “Those first-rounders, they don’t get lucky, they’re good. I still believe Andrew Benintendi is a good player, I think Andrew Benintendi is an impactful player and we need to get him back to that mindset that he had in ’18 and even in ’17.” At this point it’s hard to wonder if we’ve already seen exactly the player he is: a good gap-to-gap doubles hitter with a little power, a little speed and below-average defense in left field, where he was considered the worst in the American League in 2019. The Red Sox have some young pitching about ready to make an impact in Tanner Houck, Jay Groome, Bryan Mata and Thad Ward. They could certainly use some more after they traded a pair of their best relievers in Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree in 2020. Benintendi, who will make $6.6 million in 2021 before his final year of arbitration-eligibility in 2022, might be the best trade chip they have. * MassLive.com Boston Red Sox pitcher Matt Andriese talks free agency, relationship with Chaim Bloom on & more on The Fenway Rundown podcast Chris Cotillo On the latest episode of MassLive’s The Fenway Rundown podcast, new Red Sox pitcher Matt Andriese joins the show to talk about signing with Boston and the ins and outs of his foray into free agency.