What they need: Cubs — Keep Milton Bradley
The Cubbies entered the off-season with precious little room for error, due to their already bloated payroll and long term salary commitments, and they’ve already erred by committing two-years and $7.5 million to lefty John Grabow, who walked five batters every nine innings last season.
Now Chicago looks poised to make a second blunder. Word on the street is GM Jim Hendry is doing his best to trade Milton Bradley for pennies on the dollar.
Look, I get that Bradley is crazy — I thought Chicago was wrong to sign him in the first place. And it’s true Bradley didn’t have a great season in 2009, and his teammates and the fans and the coaching staff seem to hate him. But, as Tim Dierkes at MLB Trade Rumors pointed out, “Bradley is not the reason the Cubs received over 2,000 plate appearances of subpar hitting from Soriano, Fontenot, Soto, Hill, Hoffpauir, and Miles, nor is he the reason Ramirez was limited to 342 PAs due to a shoulder injury.”
The Cubs should try and mend fences with Bradley. Even in a down year he OBP’d .378, and it’s possible that working with new hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo (who used to coach Bradley in Texas) will help him rediscover his power.
Then, Chicago should take the money that they were going to give to some team to sweeten the Bradley deal and use it instead to sign a free agent 2B — Mike Fontenot sucks! Orlando Hudson would be an affordable upgrade.
The team should also move Alfonso Soriano out of the leadoff spot. His bottom-basement OBP is simply no longer tolerable at the top of the order.
Finally, Chicago should sign a back end bullpen arm, if they’ve got enough cash left. Fernando Rodney wouldn’t cost the team a draft pick and is coming off a season when he seemed able to elevate his game whenever the situation called for it. (Paul cringes when I say stuff like that, but the fact is Rodney managed to sustain an ERA in the mid-4.00s while only blowing one save, and that’s not easy to do.)
I’m afraid that’s about all Chicago can do, outside of tinkering with the lineup. Most of the guys the Cubs would want to move (Soriano, Zambrano, Bradley) have untradeable contracts.
But hey, here’s the good news: The Astros suck. The Brewers still don’t have any pitching. And the Cardinals could lose Joel Pineiro and John Smoltz, and are as always one Chris Carpenter injury away from mediocrity.
So just getting improved production from Soto, Soriano, et al, might be enough.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
FYI, the Cubs already moved Soriano out of the leadoff spot.
Also, maybe what the Cubs also need is to get rid of Miles.
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November 25th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Tim, I read that the team was planning on moving him out of the leadoff spot in 2010. But I figured I’d keep it in the post, just b/c it’s that damned necessary.
Getting rid of Miles would be a good move, but don’t hold your breath for trade partners.
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November 26th, 2009 at 4:36 am
I think they should acquire Granderson by any means necessary. They need to move Bradley as well.
His attitude and actions had a negative effect on this team, but like you said it’s not his fault that key guys had down years and Ramirez was out for half the year.
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