2009 will be known as the year that Jim Hendry rolled the dice playing Milton Bradley’s games. Unfortunately for Cubs fans, Hendry wasn’t playing Monopoly with friends or family. Hendry was gambling on Chicago’s chance at another World Series and put the Cubs up as collateral.
In January, Bradley signed a free agent contract with the Cubs. The contract was for $30 million over a period of three years. Fans were already predicting that this would be an arduous three years of dealing with the mercurial outfielder. Hendry seemed willing to roll the dice in hopes that the player who showed up would be the slugger who led the American League in OPS (on base plus slugging) during the 2008 season, and not the player who continuously stopped himself from having success.
Bradley’s career has been plagued with numerous arguments with umpires and, of course, the suspensions that followed them. Umpires have not been the only people to feel the ire of Bradley, as he has shared his displeasure with team management and fans in the past. Bradley is best known for two incidents. In September of 2007 as the San Diego Padres were in the heat of a playoff run, Bradley was engaged in an altercation with an umpire. While being restrained by Padres manager Bud Black, Bradley fell to the ground and tore his right ACL. As a result of the injury, Bradley missed the remainder of the season and the one game playoff with the Colorado Rockies, which the Padres lost. While with the Texas Rangers, during the 2008 season, Bradley heard comments by a television announcer which he felt were unfair. Bradley took offense and left the clubhouse to confront the announcer in the booth but was restrained by Texans manager Ron Washington and general manager Jon Daniels. Hendry undoubtedly hoped that the reward of signing Bradley would far outweigh the risk. After all, the Cubs outfield consisted of an underachieving Alfonso Soriano and a disappointing Kosuke Fukudome to go along with Reed Johnson and a few unproven prospects. In Hendry’s defense, no one could have predicted Jake Fox’s breakout year. However, trading away a proven player like Mark DeRosa to play Bradley’s game now looks foolish.
The Cubs demise in the 2009 season cannot be solely attributed to Milton Bradley, however, he certainly carries his share of the blame. Bradley never became the presence in the middle of the order that the Cubs hoped and needed him to become. Injuries and poor performance plagued Bradley and a demanding Cubs fan base, rabid for the franchise’s first championship in over a century, simply became too much. In what has become typical Milton Bradley fashion, Bradley lashed out at the media and fans. On Sept. 21, Bradley was suspended for the remainder of the 2009 season and it now appears that the Cubs will attempt to trade him.
In 2009 Jim Hendry took a card from the Chance stack and it worked out poorly for the Cubs. Hopefully in 2010, Hendry will stick to Milton Bradley board games rather than risking a chance of ending the Cubs curse on the player.