Time to cut ties with Bradley
Milton Bradley? There are three possible solutions for the Cubs: continued patience and hope, endless headaches while hoping some team is silly enough to deal for him or pay him his money and send him home.
My recommendation: Release him.
Sadly, Jim Hendry is a baseball executive. The Cubs general manager is not a magician.
This is an unfortunate reality, as it means sleight of hand is out of the question. He is going to have a hard time turning Bradley into something that will make an audience ooh and ah, certainly not in the time it takes to look away from Bradley in the on-deck circle to the sight of a pretty magician’s assistant, carrying a cold Old Style.
The timing couldn’t be much worse.
While trying to demonstrate his usefulness to the Ricketts family, Hendry is going to have to clean up the mess he made when he ignored flashing caution lights to sign Bradley to a 3-year, $30 million contract last January.
As of Wednesday, when Bradley declared he roots for 9-inning games because he can’t wait to get home, Hendry no longer can cross his fingers and hope Bradley becomes the player he pictured he would be in right field at Wrigley Field. He has to do something to get him off the roster, the sooner, the better.
For a variety of reasons, almost all of his own making, Bradley has not been a contributor for manager Lou Piniella and the Cubs, at least not in normal terms. You could count him – and Hendry’s decision to get him – as the leading contributor to the epic 2009 disappointment.
And now, with his latest comments creating an integrity issue, he has to go. You will hear some talk about a trade, but Hendry should summon the spirit of Mike Scioscia, circa 2004, or Josh Byrnes, circa 2005. He needs to punt Bradley, as Scioscia and the Angels did Jose Guillen and Byrnes and the Diamondbacks did Russ Ortiz.
These were decisive management acts – and perhaps not by coincidence the perennially solid Angels won more games the next season and the Diamondbacks stunned the National League West (and the Cubs) in ‘07 before going back into hibernation.
On the same June day Bradley told the Tribune’s Paul Sullivan he feels isolated in a clubhouse full of his fellow ballplayers, Piniella threw him off the Cubs’ bunch, telling him – among other things – “You’re not a ballplayer!”
If ever a case could be made for addition by subtraction, this is it.
The best option is the hardest – wave good-bye to a guy you shouldn’t ever have signed.
Send Bradley home. Move Kosuke Fukudome from center field to right. Give Sam Fuld a chance to audition as a center-field regular for what’s left of a miserable season.
The personnel side of this decision almost makes itself -- and just might fit right in with the theme of the weekend. Rich Harden, the Cubs’ best pitcher since the All-Star break, and Aaron Heilman have been claimed on waivers, possibly for trades as Hendry looks to 2010.
In regards to Bradley, the tough part for Hendry is saving face, especially given the delicate nature of the transition from Tribune Co. to the Rickettses. But don’t overlook the contract extension Hendry received last October. He’s signed through 2012, giving him the financial security of a strong executive. He needs to act like one, admitting a mistake and getting on with the future.
Sure, it would be nice to avoid the ignominy of releasing Bradley when he still is owed more than $21 million.
It would join the Ortiz release among the most expensive in history, surpassing transactions that left Andruw Jones, Gary Sheffield, B.J. Ryan and Bill Hall free agents, along with the trade that sent Julio Lugo from the Red Sox to the Cardinals,, with the Red Sox picking up $13.5 million in salary. But trading Bradley is pie-in-the-sky.
The only way to trade Bradley, according to executives with other clubs, is to up your ante to take on someone else’s bad contract. You know the names -- the Blue Jays’ Vernon Wells, owed $98.5 million over five years; the Giants’ Barry Zito, $83 million over four years; the Astros’ Carlos Lee, $55.5 million over three years, maybe the Giants’ Aaron Rowand, $36 million over three years.
The best of those scenarios involves the Rangers’ five-year, $80-million deal with Michael Young, who at 32 is a productive player. He’s owed $16 million a year for four more seasons.
In a cost-cutting mode because of ownership problems, Texas might consider a Bradley-for-Young trade. But it wouldn’t do it during its ongoing playoff race and it’s going to be increasingly awkward for them to try to wade through a hugely problematic trade.
Can a team already on the hook for the likes of Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano and Fukudome afford another long-term risk?
Putting together such a deal is a long shot.
