More hot stove news and rumors

Things are starting to heat up at the GM meetings here in Chicago:

Leading off, the Milton Bradley trade rumors:

1. It was reported by Ken Rosenthal that Milton Bradley was being discussed in a 3-way deal involving Toronto and the Mets.
2. However, Paul Sullivan was quick to shoot this down saying “Toronto wants no part of Bradley“.
3. Jim Hendry, in an apparent effort to try to improve his trade leverage, indicated that the Cubs have not given up on Bradley and Hall of Famer Billy Williams echoed those comments.  However, Jon Heyman of SI tweets that “He has to go somewhere.  Word is many Cubs stars won’t even talk to him”.
4. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Rangers would be willing to trade for Bradley, if the Cubs ate a significant portion of his remaining contract.  However, Paul Sullivan indicates that they Cubs don’t want to do that.
5. Phil Rogers of the Tribune tweets that the “Cubs are trying hard to trade Milton Bradley in the next 36 hour…hard to believe anyone will take him but TB, Texas are listening, anyway“.
6. Finally, John Heyman, in a separate article, confirms a lot of the above, adding that Texas may want the Cubs to pay $16 million of Bradley’s remaining $21 million contract.  The other option is for the Cubs to take on a similarly bad contract.

Mark’s Remarks - Its obvious that Hendry is trying to find a taker for Bradley without having to pay a large chunk of his remaining salary.  There is definitely some interest out there, but it sounds like teams don’t want to take on both Bradley AND his large salary.  In my opinion, the best case scenario is that the Cubs trade Bradley for Aaron Rowand of the Giants and Rowand has a resurgence in Chicago.

Not everything is about Bradley though.  Paul Sullivan also has the following tidbits:

• Rich Harden is hoping to resign with the Cubs with his agent Arn Tellem expected to meet with Hendry this week.
• The Cubs are hoping to resign John Grabow to a 2 year deal.
• There’s been no talk of a Carlos Zambrano trade.
• Its possible that Starlin Castro could play short for the Cubs in 2010.
• The Cubs are in the market for a center fielder so they can move Kosuke Fukudome back to right.

Mark’s Remarks -

• If Harden is willing to take a discount to return to the Cubs, I’m sure Hendry would consider it.  However, that seems unlikely.
• Grabow is a decent reliever, but the Cubs should not overspend on him.  I think around $1.5 million per year is sufficient.
• At least we know that one headcase (Zambrano) will be with the Cubs in 2010.
• As I said before, I would not be surprised to see Castro in a Cubs uniform by May 2010.
• There are not a lot of center fielders available in the free agent market, so the Cubs will need to acquire one via trade.

I’ll keep you up-to-date on the rumors as the GM meetings wind down tomorrow.

Tags: Aaron Rowand, Carlos Zambrano, Hot stove news, Jim Hendry, John Grabow, Milton Bradley, Rich Harden, Stalin Castro, Starlin Castro, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Trade Rumors