December 18, 2009
Finally. Milton Bradley is gone. Good riddance to a guy who wouldn’t have been a starter on a high school team with his numbers last year. And with his antics and mental breakdown he would have been thrown off the team.
Bradley has $22 million left on his contract (original 3yr-$30M). He went to the Seattle Mariners for another lemon with a huge contract, RH pitcher, Carlos Silva, who has $25M left on his contract (original 4yr-$48M).
Seattle also threw in $9M, so the Cubs netted $6M and a whole lot of happiness. Though it would have been interesting to see what would have happened to Hendry at the Convention had he not unloaded Bradley. I didn’t know that when Hendry told the team he was suspending Bradley, several players applauded when he left the room.
Bradley, 31, BA .257, 12 HR, 40 RBI, OBP .378.
Silva, 30, 5-18, 6.81 ERA in two years and was injured both seasons.
A bad arm can be rehabbed – a bad mind and attitude – no chance. It wasn’t the Cubs and it certainly wasn’t the Cubfans. Bradley is going to his 8th team in 10 years.
JIM HENDRY:
In hindsight, obviously, it was an acquisition that I am responsible for that obviously didn’t work out. I think if Milton had hit at the beginning of the season like he did in Spring Training and like he did in Texas, possibly things would have been different. And when things started go the wrong way it was hard to stop.
There wasn’t an easy solution to it by any means. Many of the names that were bantered around were obviously deals that never would have been considered ideal. But we also knew we had to move the player.
I take responsibility of it seriously and I felt like – I think I owed it to the organization and our fan base to eventually come to this conclusion.
MILTON BRADLEY to Seattle sports writers:
I’m ready to move forward. I really don’t have a statement about Chicago. I’m a Seattle Mariner. Chicago is a thing of the past. I’m not interested in rehashing news.
There’s no way that I’m going to be fairly portrayed or represented. It’s like everything in sports, and being a celebrity and whatnot, it’s his reputation and what dirt you can dish and what you can get on someone …That’s just the way it is, and so I’m portrayed as however I am. It just adds to the mystique, I guess.
Ever the classless victim. He learned nothing and never apologized to his once teammates. Nothing is going to change in Seattle, except the market – one paper and a town not filled with fans who expect outfielders to run after the ball and not throw one into the stands with only 2 outs.
Thank you Seattle. Enjoy!
Sources: Chicago Tribune & NBC 5
