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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Bradley a Ray? Could happen. Maybe.

Posted Dec 6, 2009 by Roger Mooney

Updated Dec 6, 2009 at 08:30 PM

Joe Maddon was asked about Milton Bradley last week and, naturally, the Rays manager said he liked the Cubs troubled right fielder.

Maddon, Rays executive vice president of baseball Andrew Friedman and a few other members of the Rays front office had lunch with Bradley during last year’s Winter Meetings, held in Las Vegas.

Maddon was impressed with Bradley. That Bradley has been a problem on other teams is not a concern of Maddon, who feels his managerial style will mesh well with Bradley, who eventually signed a three-year deal with the Cubs.

Bradley has played for seven teams and has been traded four times during his 10-year career. He appears to be nearing his fifth trade since there are reports that Cubs insiders have told other teams Bradley will no longer be a Cub when the Winter Meetings break up Thursday morning.

Incidentally, the meetings, which begin Monday, are being held in Indianapolis this week. This is the farthest north baseball’s annual meetings have been held since the 1966 meetings were held in Columbus, Ohio.

With daily highs not expected to get much higher than the low 40s and the daily lows expected to dip into the 20s, baseball has managed to put the “winter” back in the Winter Meetings.

They were held last year in Las Vegas. They will be held next December in Lake Buena Vista.

Anyway … back to Bradley.

The Bradley-to-the-Rays-for-Pat Burrell rumor will be one of the storylines this week, though not the biggest to anyone other than Rays and Cubs fans.

Make that Mets fans, as well, since one of the rumors has Burrell going to the Mets, Mets second baseman Luis Castillo going to the Cubs and Bradley going to the Rays in a three-way deal aimed at making everyone, if not happy, than less unsatisfied, if that’s possible.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Bradley is scheduled to make $22 million over the next two seasons. Now, didn’t the Rays just clear close to $22 million off the books over the nest two years when they traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels in late August?

Yes they did, which means Bradley won’t be taking up room in the Rays clubhouse unless the Cubs pick up some of the $13 million tab, which is what would be leftover when the Rays shed Burrell and his $9 million salary for 2010.

But, keep this in mind, as well: Bradley spent the majority of the 2008 season as the Rangers designated hitter and had career highs in home runs (22), RBIs (77) and on-base-percentage (.436). And, he can play the outfield, which means Maddon can rest Carl Crawford’s hamstrings and get C.C. some at-bats at DH.

Burrell has struggled mightily as a designated hitter. Bradley seems to function well there, and that’s where he will play the majority of the time if he does become a Ray.

The Rays would love to rid themselves of Burrell, his salary, poor production and attitude. But, is exchanging all that for Bradley worth it?

That’s one storyline that might be answered this week.

- Roger Mooney