Weekend Cubs Rumors

Although its the weekend, Jim Hendry isn’t resting and neither are the rumors surrounding the Cubs.

Of course, what’s on everyone’s mind is when is Hendry going to trade Milton Bradley.  Carrie Muskat of MLBlogs, says that at least 3 teams are interested in Bradley and that Hendry will try to move him during next week’s winter meetings.

However, the Bradley trade could be happening sooner than that, as my friends over at Bleacher Nation recently reported that Will Carroll tweeted that “Cubs signing of Mike Cameron is waiting on deal of Milton Bradley, which has been “imminent” for about 72 hours.”

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports that, even though Texas has interest in Bradley, the Tampa Rays still appear to be the front runner for Bradley.

Whatever the case, Hendry needs to wrap this up next week so that he can move on to other pursuits, namely who’s going to play centerfield.

Speaking of center, Gordon Wittenmyer writes that former Milwaukee Brewer Mike Cameron is at the center of the Cubs wish list.  Wittenmyer also lists Marlon Byrd as a candidate for the Cubs centerfield position and of course we know of the Cubs interest in Curtis Granderson.

Cameron strikes out a bunch and won’t hit for a high average, but he gets on base fairly well (.340 career OBP), has some pop (an average of 23 HR’s over the last 3 years) and plays good defense.  He ranked just behind Curtis Granderson in the Plus/Minus leaders for defense from 2006-2008, according to the fielding bible.  The one big drawback of Cameron is that he will be 37 next year, whereas Granderson is only 29.  Byrd splits the difference at 33, but is a much weaker defender than the other two.

Finally, La Prensa in Nicaragua (through Diamond Notes) reports that the Cubs are one of the leaders for Vicente Padilla, who pitched for the Rangers and Dodgers last year, compiling a 4.46 ERA in 147.1 IP.  If signed, its possible the Cubs could use him as their 5th starter, allowing Jeff Samardzija to gain some more experience in the minors.  This would also mean that Sean Marshall and Tom Gorzelanny would work out of the bullpen.

So, with the winter meetings 2 days away, I’m stoked.  This is one of the more exciting times of the offseason, when a lot of the questions for many teams are answered.  We’ll see if Hendry is able to answer his two biggest questions:  What to do with Milton Bradley and who will play centerfield?

Tags: Chicago Cubs, Curtis Granderson, Hot stove news, Jeff Samardzija, Marlon Byrd, Mike Cameron, Milton Bradley, Sean Marshall, Tom Gorzelanny, Trade Rumors, vicente padilla