2023 #7 Prospect Enrique Bradfield Jr. - CF

[Sports Guy]

28 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The way I see it, unless the O’s choose to trade Mullins, he’ll be our starting CF the next two years, so there’s no need to rush Bradfield.  I see him getting his feet wet sometime in the second half of 2025 and then stepping up to starting CF in 2026 if all goes well.   

It seems like Bradfield needs some work on his swing.  Sometimes players adapt to swing changes quickly, other times it takes a while.  I’m not going to panic if Bradfield doesn’t light the world on fire right away.   But on the other hand, I’ll be very excited if he does.  
 

And btw, under your scenario, he would be fine.

What I mean by that is my expectation is that Bradfield shows he can be a regular on a ML team by June of next year, if not before (just like Cowser)

So, if the Os decide to keep Mullins and start him, that doesn’t mean that Bradfield is struggling by the definition that I’m saying.

It just means that, imo, the Os are overpaying for a position (and not using the incumbent player to get more assets) and not giving the at bats to a younger player..which is my same thought behind some of the roster decisions that they could make this OD.

If he is showing by the middle of next year or end of next year that it’s really iffy that he can be an everyday MLer, that’s where I would say it’s an issue.  Going back to the original comment, the poster said up to 2.5 years. Now, I don’t know if he meant from the day he was drafted or from now but if it’s still really iffy that he can hit ML pitching by early to mid 2026, I think it’s likely to be a problem expecting him to be an everyday ML player.

Edited February 19 by Sports Guy

[OriolesMagic83]

If Mullins has a good 2024 and 2025 and is healthy, O's should feel secure offering him a QO.  He's much more likely to get a $50 million or more contract that would make him turn down a QO.  Santander even with a good season in 2024 could struggle to get more than a 2 year deal.

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

If Mullins has a good 2024 and 2025 and is healthy, O's should feel secure offering him a QO.  He's much more likely to get a $50 million or more contract that would make him turn down a QO.  Santander even with a good season in 2024 could struggle to get more than a 2 year deal.

If Santander has a good year, that’ll be three in a row and I think he’ll do very well.   Jorge Soler, going into his age 32 season, just got a 3/$45 mm deal.

As to Mullins, I’m not going to worry now about giving him a QO two years from now.  His career could go a lot of different ways between now and then.  

I think the O’s are well-positioned to react to the facts on the ground when it comes to how they handle the transition from our current starting three to the next group.  
 

[Just Regular]

I think drafting Enrique Bradfield is kind of like drafting Gregg Olson - its a particular set of skills.

Speed and defense the young guys have in spades, and I think in the Good 2024 scenarios, Bradfield poses the same challenge to Hays next spring that Kjerstad-Cowser do for Hays-Santander now.

I believe Elias cultivating good relations with his key stakeholders RF Santander will get a lot of run this year unless the defense difference is huge, and same deal with the CF position in 2025, absent Mullins doing something like Ryan Gosling in Remember the Titans and asking for a role change.

[sportsfan8703]

A likely scenario is that we trade Mullins after the 2024 season. EBJ is ready at the ASB 2025. We could go with a stop gap situation for the first half of 2025. Hilliard, Fabian, Cowser, Haskin, and a cheap FA, could fill the first half of 2025. 

That puts EBJ on this development plan,

2024

A+ - 30 games

AA - 80 games

AAA - 10 games

2025 

AAA - first half of 2025

[Tony-OH]

I would not be surprised to see Bradfield aggressively promoted if he's keeping his OBP high. I'll admit with his plate discipline, if he doesn't end the year in AAA I'd imagine he hit a roadblock. Fabian was on that track until AA pitching stopped him in his tracks.

[Sports Guy]

Yea I think we have to recognize the type of player Bradfield is. Could he come up right now and be what Myles Straw was in 2022? Straw had a sub 600 OPs and still had a 2+ fWAR.

I bet Bradfield could do that right now.

His speed and defense (assuming that every single scouting report is correct) are so elite that he is already a valuable guy. 

So, he should move fast. He is 22. He will likely start in Aberdeen and the reality is that he shouldn’t be there beyond mid May or so. Get him to AA and then we can really start to evaluate the hitting more. 

That’s when his season and career really start imo.  

[sportsfan8703]

The positive to being aggressive with EBJ is he’s ticketed for the 9th spot in the lineup whenever he breaks in. Heck, Mullins might bat 7th/8th sometimes this year once Holliday is up. Also, we may play a service clock game with EBJ and keep him down till mid June of 2025 and get by with whoever is still here out of Hilliard, McKenna, Haskin, Fabian, Cowser, and vet Milb FA, until 6/15. 

[DirtyBird]

21 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

A likely scenario is that we trade Mullins after the 2024 season.

I don't think that is all that likely

[Rbiggs2525]

Center Field is probably my biggest concern on our roster right now. Mullins last 2 months and playoffs he looked completely overmatched. Maybe it was lingering injuries but I am hopeful Bradifield can finish the season in double A at minimum.

[Sports Guy]

19 minutes ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

Center Field is probably my biggest concern on our roster right now. Mullins last 2 months and playoffs he looked completely overmatched. Maybe it was lingering injuries but I am hopeful Bradifield can finish the season in double A at minimum.

Again, barring injury, I think if Bradfield only finishes the season in AA, that should be considered a disappointment.

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea I think we have to recognize the type of player Bradfield is. Could he come up right now and be what Myles Straw was in 2022? Straw had a sub 600 OPs and still had a 2+ fWAR.

I bet Bradfield could do that right now.

His speed and defense (assuming that every single scouting report is correct) are so elite that he is already a valuable guy. 

So, he should move fast. He is 22. He will likely start in Aberdeen and the reality is that he shouldn’t be there beyond mid May or so. Get him to AA and then we can really start to evaluate the hitting more. 

That’s when his season and career really start imo.  

1. I think the O's will want more development than you will want. Just because he could be a 2 WAR player doesn't mean that's the guy they want to promote.

2. I don't think he and Mullins will be an either/or option for the O's. My bet is they never get the deal they want for Mullins and we have .5-1.5 seasons with both on the 26 man roster.

[Sports Guy]

20 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

1. I think the O's will want more development than you will want. Just because he could be a 2 WAR player doesn't mean that's the guy they want to promote.

2. I don't think he and Mullins will be an either/or option for the O's. My bet is they never get the deal they want for Mullins and we have .5-1.5 seasons with both on the 26 man roster.

1) I think he could be that 2 WAR guy right now but I’m not calling for him to be up now. I want to see more development.

2) Mullins isn’t getting extended beyond 2025. 
 

They certainly may both be on the roster in 2025 but I think that’s about it.  Not sure if Bradfield has the arm for the corners but Mullins certainly doesn’t.  So, I don’t see many scenarios where it makes sense to have them both on the roster beyond 2025.

[waroriole]

3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

If he needs 2+ years, he very likely will not be an everyday MLer(unless he has had some bad injuries that slowed his development).

I don’t know why you keep saying that. It doesn’t make it any more true through repetition. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, DirtyBird said:

I don't think that is all that likely

Neither do I.  <25% that Mullins gets traded after this season.