Jackie Bradley Jr. has said for the past year that he is ready for free agency.
Judging by his comments Wednesday, that certainly hasn't seemed to change.
Talking to the media for the first time since Monday's trade deadline, Bradley Jr. offered the impression of a player who is set to finish the 2020 season as strong as powerful before getting a chance to test the market.
"I made it this far," said Bradley Jr., who was a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2011. "Might as well become a free agent."
Bradley Jr. also offered confirmation of a WEEI.com report Tuesday that the organization had not talked to him about a contract extension despite Chaim Bloom's proclamation Monday that the Red Sox wanted to keep the outfielder in the organization beyond 2020.
"I think that's just something they communicated with y'all at this point," he said of the Red Sox' desire to do another deal. "I'll be a free agent in a couple weeks. That's the cool thing about free agency ,you get to weigh out your options."
Bradley Jr. has long made it clear he is confident heading into free agency, no matter the uncertain economic status of the game. It's an approach he clearly isn't shying away from.
"At the end of the day, it's not something I'm gonna sit and worry about because I can't control that outside factor," he noted. "I can control how I play and my decisions. Other than that, I can't control the economy. I can't control, that's out of my hands. We'll evaluate when I need to and go from there."
Another topic of conversation during Bradley Jr.'s Zoom meeting with the media was the approach taken last Thursday when the Red Sox and Blue Jays chose to postpone their game out of concerns over social injustices.
He explained that the message he gave to his teammates was one explaining his desire that they play despite his choice not to participate.
"I told them at the beginning, 'Please do not stop playing the game because of my personal decision that I wanted to make. I want y'all to play this game and this is something that y'all love and it's what you want to do. Do not, I guess, react on something that I wanted to do.' With that, they showed tremendous support for me and it means a lot."
He then went on to single out Ron Roenicke, who had made a point to talk to Bradley Jr. prior to Wednesday night's game and was extremely emotional when discussing Thursday's boycott.
"Ron cares. Ron truly cares. He gets it in the sense of, he's just not a manager," the outfielder said. "He's someone you can some to and speak to on a personal level. My hat's off to him, with everything that's transpired over this offseason and all of the stuff that went down, Ron has an unbelievably hard job right now and he's stepped to the plate and he's done a tremendous job with the hand he has been dealt. I have so much respect for him. This has been a tough year with everything going on and I believe he was the right man to do this job."
