Gamecock great Jackie Bradley Jr. returning to USC ... as a TV personality
Jackie Bradley Jr. is returning to college baseball in a new role.
The former South Carolina Gamecocks star and two-time national champion has joined ESPN as a college baseball studio and game analyst for the 2025 season and beyond, the company announced Thursday.
Bradley will start appearing on SEC Network’s baseball studio coverage this weekend and will make his debut as a game analyst two weeks later for a Tennessee-Vanderbilt series. And he’ll return to his alma mater for the first time as a broadcaster on Thursday, May 15 to call a USC home game against No. 7 LSU at Founders Park.
“I’m honored to join ESPN and can’t wait to get started covering the game that I love,” Bradley said in a news release. “College baseball has grown a ton since I was at South Carolina, and I hope I can contribute to the sport’s continued growth and popularity through our coverage of the student-athletes who give it their all.”
Jackie Bradley Jr.’s USC career
Bradley, also known as JBJ, is a beloved figure in Columbia. He was a key member of the Gamecocks’ back-to-back national championship teams in 2010-11 under Ray Tanner and was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2010 College World Series.
The Boston Red Sox picked Bradley No. 40 overall in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft. The outfielder won the 2018 World Series with Boston, was an All-Star in 2016 and spent nine total years with the franchise.
Bradley, 35, has also played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals. He lasted appeared in the big leagues with the Royals in 2023 and spent portions of 2024 with the New York Mets’ Triple-A affiliate.
His broadcasting work with ESPN will also include postseason duties. Bradley will be a studio analyst for the 2025 SEC baseball tournament in Hoover, Alabama next month and will also call games from a NCAA Tournament regional site and help with CWS coverage from Omaha, Nebraska.
Bradley’s alma mater is on its third coach since his time at South Carolina. Since Tanner’s retirement in 2012, the Gamecocks have gone from Chad Holbrook to Mark Kingston and now Paul Mainieri, the former LSU coach in his first season.
The Gamecocks are currently 24-18 and 4-14 in the SEC.
