How South Carolina alums are performing at the All-Star break

With the MLB All-Star break come and gone, the second half of the regular season gets underway today. While South Carolina baseball didn’t have any participants in All-Star festivities earlier this week, there are still many who have been having great seasons. Here’s a look at how each former Gamecock is doing with their respective big league clubs.

Jackie Bradley Jr.—Boston Red Sox

Following a one-year stint with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Red Sox reacquired Bradley in a trade during the 2021 offseason.

Similar to last season, his numbers have been down thus far in 2022. In 81 games, the 32-year-old outfielder is slashing .202/.255/.544 with one homer and 25 RBI.

Less than two weeks ago, Bradley made his debut as a pitcher against the New York Yankees on July 8. With Boston trailing by six runs, he pitched the ninth inning and surrendered one run on a hit and three walks. While it wasn’t a clean outing, he would strike out two-time batting champion D.J. LeMahieu.

After this season, Bradley will have a $12 million mutual option for 2023 with an $8 million buyout if the Red Sox opt not to retain him.

Jonah Bride—Oakland A’s

At the start of the season, it seemed like a long shot that Bride would reach the MLB before September at the earliest. However, he tore up minor league pitching between Double-A and Triple-A and received his first big league call-up on June 14.

In 41 at-bats with the A’s, Bride is slashing .220/.273/.244 with one extra-base hit. Oakland placed the 26-year-old utility man on the 10-day injured list on June 28 with a right shoulder strain.

As of July 13, the former Gamecocks third baseman is back with the Las Vegas Aviators on a rehab assignment in hopes of rejoining the major league team.

Wil Crowe—Pittsburgh Pirates

During spring training, Crowe, a struggling starting pitcher, wondered if he could make the transition to the bullpen. While he was hesitant about the idea at first, Crowe eventually agreed and it’s worked out well so far this season.

In 38 relief appearances, he’s pitching to a 3.36 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 24 walks. He’s thrown 51.2 innings, which is the most amongst Pirates relievers this season. He’s also keeping the ball from leaving the ballpark, only allowing two homers compared to 25 last year.

Grayson Greiner—Arizona Diamondbacks

After four seasons with the Detroit Tigers, former South Carolina catcher Greiner signed a one-year, $700,000 deal with the D-Backs before the 2022 season.

As the odd-man out on the catching depth chart, Greiner has spent a majority of this season with the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the Reno Aces. In 35 games with the Aces, he’s batting .240/.319/.430 with six homers and 18 RBI.

He made a brief stint with Arizona in mid-May, where he picked up one hit across six at-bats.

Whit Merrifield—Kansas City Royals

Since his last 200-plus hit campaign three years ago, Merrifield’s productivity has slowed. Through 84 games this season, the former South Carolina outfielder is slashing .240/.292/.343 with 81 hits, 18 of which have been doubles.

After playing in 553 straight games, Merrifield’s longtime consecutive games streak came to an end on July 11. Not only did it become the new Royals franchise record, but it’s the longest such streak since Miguel Tejada’s ended at 1,152 games in 2007.

As has been the case almost every year, Merrifield’s name has received interest through trade talks. With the Aug. 2 trade deadline coming up fast, it’ll be interesting to see if Kansas City will finally let its longtime slugger go.

Jordan Montgomery—New York Yankees

Now in his sixth season of donning the pinstripes, Montgomery has been fantastic at the backend of the Yankees’ rotation.

Across 18 starts, Montgomery is pitching to a 3.26 ERA with 80 strikeouts and 19 walks in 102.2 innings. He could be on track to log the most innings of his career by the season’s end.

Clarke Schmidt—New York Yankees

Unlike Montgomery, Schmidt has been unable to find a permanent spot on New York’s pitching staff this season. Between multiple MLB stints, he’s been pitching to a 3.00 ERA with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 21-to-12.

On June 23, the Yankees sent Schmidt back to their Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Max Schrock—Cincinnati Reds

Schrock is another former Gamecock that has seen a lot of action this season between the minors and majors. After being placed on the 60-day injured list on April 7, it wouldn’t be until May 28 that he would make his first appearance on a rehab assignment.

The Reds activated Schrock on June 17 before being sent back down to Triple-A on July 5. He was recently recalled on July 14 but only spent three days with the big league team.

In 13 games with Cincinnati this season, Schrock is slashing .154/.185/.154 with four hits in 26 at-bats.

Christian Walker—Arizona Diamondbacks

In his eighth big league season, sixth with the Diamondbacks, Walker is batting .204/.319/.460 with 22 homers and 46 RBI.

With the fourth-most home runs in the National League, the 31-year-old is on pace to break his single-season best of 29 homers, which came back in 2019.

Taylor Widener—Arizona Diamondbacks

Former South Carolina baseball right-hander Widener has been back-and-forth with the Diamondbacks all year long.

In four games with Arizona, he’s pitching to a 9.64 ERA with three strikeouts and two walks. During his time with the Aces, he’s struggling with a 6.45 ERA in 16 games.