MIAMI, FL – APRIL 03: Jackie Bradley Jr. #19 of the Boston Red Sox looks on prior to the game against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on April 3, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
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As the Boston Red Sox look to return next season with a shot at winning their first World Series since 2018, they will open a season without any of those championship players on the roster for the first time since then.
However, several of those players are still in the majors. Rafael Devers, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts will play in the National League West next year. And another key player from that World Series run is now in a new baseball league altogether.
On Thursday, Jackie Bradley Jr. was the first pick of the inaugural Banana Ball player draft, joining the league’s Indianapolis Clowns to become the first former MLB player to take a full-time role in the antics-laden baseball league.
“With his oldest daughter being a big fan of Banana Ball, Bradley made an appearance for the Savannah Bananas during a July game at Fenway Park,” Anthony Gharib reported for ESPN. “He called it a great appearance that ultimately led Jesse Cole, founder of Banana Ball, to reach out to him about joining the Clowns.”
Bradley was named the American League Championship Series’ Most Valuable Player during the Red Sox title run in 2018 and he was an everyday outfielder for the team for several years. But his MLB career took a turn shortly after that championship season, and he was designated for assignment after leaving and then returning to the Red Sox just four years later.
He last played in the majors in a 2023 stint with the Kansas City Royals that saw him bat just .133. However, Bradley hasn’t ruled out a return to MLB after joining Banana Ball.
“If there’s an opportunity to go back to the majors, I would obviously weigh that,” Bradley said, according to Gharib. “If that’s for my family, then I’m not going to rule out any opportunities.”
Though Banana Ball is best known for the antics of its flagship team, the Savannah Bananas, which include players roaming the field on stilts, doing acrobatics as they pitch and generally mixing the sport with wild entertainment, it is also a rapidly growing business.
“The Bananas boast 15 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. The Yankees — one of the sport’s most iconic franchises — have fewer than six million,” Daniel Matthews reported for the Daily Mail. “Earlier this year, the waitlist for Banana Ball tickets reached 3.5 million people.”
And Bradley’s new team, the Clowns, is a revival of a Negro Leagues’ exhibition team that served a brand of Banana Ball before the Savannah Bananas. It was launched in 1935 and signed Hank Aaron to his first professional contract before disbanding in 1989.
Banana Ball’s upcoming tour features a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to celebrate that history.
Bradley’s participation is another sign that Banana Ball is a serious competitor to MLB, even as unserious as the play on the field may be.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterchawaga/2025/11/14/red-sox-former-playoff-mvp-joins-banana-ball-clowns-after-mlb-careers-turn/
