Gamecock great Jackie Bradley Jr signs with new MLB team, reports say

JBJ is on the move to the Midwest, according to reports.

South Carolina baseball great and MLB star Jackie Bradley Jr. is set to sign a two-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, according to The Athletic and the Boston Globe.

The move will officially end Bradley Jr.’s eight-year run with the Boston Red Sox, where he shined as a Gold Glove outfielder capable of making highlight-reel plays on a regular basis. He was named an All-Star in 2016 and won the American League Championship Series MVP award in 2018 en route to the Red Sox winning a World Series title.

Bradley Jr. is one of just three former Gamecock players to win a World Series ring, alongside his 2018 teammate Steve Pearce and Mookie Wilson in 1986.

Over the course of his tenure in Boston, Bradley Jr. played 873 games, including at least 130 games in each of the last four full seasons. During last year’s abbreviated 60-game campaign, he hit a career high .283 with an OPS+ of 118, tied for his second-highest mark.

Bradley Jr.’s new deal with the Brewers will pay him $24 million and team him up in the outfield with a former MVP in Christian Yelich.

Over the course of three seasons at South Carolina, Bradley Jr. emerged as a star and fan favorite of the Gamecock faithful. He was a Freshman All-American in 2009, then went on to earn SEC All-Defensive team honors two years in a row. He also was named Most Outstanding Player at the College World Series in 2010, boosting the Gamecocks to their first ever national title, and came back from injury in 2011 to help win another national championship.

He was drafted in the supplemental portion of the first round in the 2011 MLB draft by the Red Sox and made his big league debut just two years later.