Chicago Cubs Nearing Swap of Milton Bradley For Carlos Silva

Originally posted at: BringingHeat.com

After a seemingly endless era of Cubs management trying their hardest to trade Milton Bradley, his short tenure on the north-side has (almost) officially come to a close.

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times reports that Bradley will be taking his raw offensive talent (and volatile attitude) all the way up to Seattle, to join the Mariners in their very busy offseason. They will reportedly be moving 30-year-old starting pitcher Carlos Silva back to Chicago in return.

Silva has been, well, loudly awful over the past two years. Carlos owns a horrendous 6.82 ERA combined in his two seasons with Seattle, completely working his way out of the starting rotation. On top of his complete lack of production, he dealt with major injury issues in 2009, amassing only 30 innings pitched.

The money-swapping side of the deal is still in the works, but the most the Cubs would be saving is $2-$4 million.

This trade was a result of many things. Bradley went through offensive struggles in the first half of 2009, and then allowed the fans to get into his head (as he has consistently done his entire career). Not only did his game-day struggles hurt his value, but perhaps even more consequential was the self-damaging press that the Cubs were releasing regarding Bradley.

When a team says that they “need” to trade someone, it kills a player's value.

This is what happens when you have this perfect storm: The Cubs have traded Bradley for arguably the worst starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.

Silva is a borderline fifth starter making more than $22 million over the next two seasons. For all of Bradley’s problems, he remains a very talented man who remains a top-of-the-line offensive player.

What is Silva’s upside, you wonder? Um, I’m sure his mother has some kind words to say about him…

The Mariners have added Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee over this 2009 offseason. With Bradley in tow, they could have a potentially lethal middle-of-the-order bat to boot. They could also have a loud-mouth and inconsistent designated hitter, but he is worth the risk to Seattle’s front office.

There’s very little to be optimistic about with this move if you’re a Cub fan. The fans who hate Bradley may be happy with his departure, but the team is in no way improved by gaining Silva, and is potentially worse now.

So many events could have been handled better, both by Milton and his former team, but the result is unequivocally bad for Chicago.