It’s no surprise that for the Cubs, the Winter Meetings (that begin today in Indianapolis) are all about trading Milton Bradley. It would be nice to sign a center fielder. It would be great to find a second baseman of starting pitcher. But the first order of business is trading Milton Bradley.
Tampa Bay remains the Cubs most likely trade partner. But even the Rays are no sure thing. They are willing to deal Pat Burrell to the Cubs for Bradley, but only if the Cubs are willing to pick up most or all of Bradley’s $12 million salary in 2011. The Cubs have reportedly offered to pay $5 million of Bradey’s 2011 salary, but that’s not cutting it for the Rays at the moment.
Rays manager Joe Maddon has been quoted as saying that he would welcome Milton Bradley to the team. He bases his opinion on a lunch he had with Bradley last off season. Sound familiar? Didn’t Bradley sell his bill of goods to Jim Hendry at a lunch last off season as well. Bradley may make a nice lunch companion, but I pity any team that brings him into their locker room.
Even if a deal can be struck, it remains to be seen what the Cubs will do with Pat Burrell. He has no place on the Cubs (other than perhaps as a very expensive bench bat), and the Cubs are taking a risk trading for him before they have another trade in place to move him. The Mets were once linked as a possible team that could step in to make this a three-way trade, but that rumor has died down over recent days.
The Texas Ranger are another possible trade partner for the Cubs. The Rangers are rumored to be offering pitcher Kevin Millwood and his $10 million 2010 salary, but only if the Cubs pick up a substantial portion ($16 million or more) of Bradley’s salary for 2010 and 2011.
I’m not sure that a trade with Texas is very likely. Not only are the Cubs loathe to pay another team $16 million or more to take Bradley, but, as Carrie Muskat of MLB.com tweets, Texas isn’t sure they want to take on “that headache” again. Of course, “that headache’ is Bradley.
The Cubs feel confident (at least in public) that they can move Bradley. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun-Times wrotes that there are two team interested “for sure” (Rays and Rangers), “with at least one more team in the picture.” Muskat said the same thing a few days ago, but didn’t bother to name the third team. Now Wittenmyer is doing the same thing.
Wittenmyer goes on to discuss the urgency of the situation. The Cubs need to move Bradley quickly so they can turn their attention to filling the team’s other needs.
“But whatever they do, they need to move quickly if they want to get the most out of the available trade and free-agent market, specifically, free-agent center fielder Mike Cameron, who is high on their wish list and also drawing interest from other teams.”
I have to admit, I had much higher hopes for a Bradley trade early on that what it looks like the Cubs are going to have to settle for. I had envisioned a trade with the Orioles where the Cubs would package Bradley a 2-3 prospects for Brian Roberts and Luke Scott. In hindsight, that was obviously naive. I thought that teams would be more willing to take on Bradley. I should have known then that the promise of Bradley’s OBP can not overshadow the near certainty that he is going to misbehave and disrupt his team’s locker room. Of course, I can be forgiven. Jim Hendry suffered under this same illusion during last off season.
At this point, the Cubs need to get what they can for Bradley and then move on. He already played his part in sidetracking the Cubs in 2009. The Cubs can’t allow him to do the same thing to the 2010 team.
