Finally starting, South Carolina baseball alum Jonah Bride is having a whale of a 2nd half of the season

South Carolina baseball alum Jonah Bride has had a whale of a month.

Bad puns aside, the Oklahoma native is getting just the second opportunity of his career to play consistently (the other coming at the end of a horrendously bad Oakland Athletics 2022 campaign in which winning was not a priority). The Owasso Walloper has made the most of his chance.

After getting traded to the Miami Marlins this offseason, Bride spent most of the first half of the year in Triple-A but got called back up in July. Since the All-Star break, though, Bride has been made a starter in Miami, spending most of his time at first base while filling in some at third base, second base, and designated hitter.

The back of Bride's baseball card shows that the former Gamecock third baseman is performing at a career-best pace. His stats over the last month are hard to ignore.

Since being made a starter, Bride has posted a .281/.431/.509/.939 slash line and has reached base 32 times in 17 games. For reference, his .939 OPS number would be tied for 9th in all of Major League Baseball for the season, and his .431 on-base percentage would be ranked 3rd in the game.

Despite playing in fewer games than any other player in the top-54, Bride ranks 20th in the league in walks since the All-Star break and is one of just 55 players to be intentionally walked. Likely coming as no surprise to South Carolina baseball fans who watched his approach at the plate for three years in Columbia, Bride is also tied for 7th in HBPs during that stretch, as well.

Bride has 5 career long balls, and 4 of them have come in the last 15 days. He has set new career-high marks in home runs and RBI and is on pace to pass his best numbers for doubles, runs scored, and walks while obliterating all of his previous top outputs in every rate stat.

The Marlins are in the middle of an ugly rebuild, so predicting Bride's future is difficult. At age 28, he is older than most non-star players who survive rebuilds, and he has performed well enough in 2024 to think that he can sign a better contract this offseason when he becomes a free agent.

It might not be with the Marlins, but Jonah Bride likely has played his way into receiving another Major League Baseball opportunity in 2025, and after four full seasons and three partial ones in the Minors leading up to this point, Bride has earned every bit of this chance.