MLB · LF · Cincinnati Reds
JJ Bleday
B/T L/L · 6' 2" · 205 lb · born Danville, PA, USA · age 28 · draft 2019 rd 1 · played LF 109, RF 15, DH 12 · MLB debut 2022-07-23
Last 14 days (through 2026-08-29): 14 G · .220 AVG · 1 HR · 4 RBI · .676 OPS
467 plate appearances scored this season His season card →
A moment
JJ Bleday's cycle — JJ Bleday hit for the cycle. A single, a double, a triple and a home run in one game. Read it →
The Line of the Day
4-6, HR, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI — Sat, Aug 22 · night game vs. Arizona Diamondbacks The scorecard →
Scout’s note
JJ Bleday, a Danville, Pennsylvania product and 2019 first-round pick, has 452 strikeouts in 511 career games — a left-handed left fielder who plays every day despite the whiffs.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
We wrote about Bleday here — The Buzz August 23, 2026
Where he stands
throughAgainst the 382 qualified major-league hitters — 100+ balls in play this season, the same field the boards are chosen out of. Right is better on every row.
- EV95105.951
- Deserved (xVal)0.41275
- Got (aVal)0.36152
- Luck gap (park-adjusted)flipped-0.04187
today · 30 days ago, against the 340 men who qualified then · the tick is the midpoint · the number at the right is the percentile, the number beside it the measurement itself.
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $1.40M
- Tax hit
- $1.40M
- Service time
- 3 yr 29 d
- Options left
- 1 / 3
The deal 1 year $1.4M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$1.4M (26) · agent Boras Corp.
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Cincinnati Reds.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $1.40M
- Guaranteed
- $1.40M
- Term
- 1 yr
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | $1.4M | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect JJ Bleday
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
JJ Bleday cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
+4.6 net runs over 53 graded games — the zone was kind to the umpire on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →