Obsessive Bradley Trade Watch: Milton Bradley to Toronto, Vernon Wells to Chicago

The hottest Milton Bradley trade rumor making the rounds has the Chicago Cubs sending Bradley to the Toronto Blue Jays in a bad contract swap for outfielder Vernon Wells.

“It’s early on, but we think this one has some legs,” said one Cubs official. “But they aren’t the only team we are talking with.”

Bradley, 31, who was suspended for the remainder of the season by the Cubs on Sept. 20, has two years and $21 million US remaining on his contract.

Wells has six years left on his contract extension, $107 million remaining, including the $8.5-million final instalment of his signing bonus, which is due in March. Team president Paul Godfrey and former general manager J.P. Ricciardi signed Wells to the contract extension.

The Cubs suspended Bradley a day after he criticized the team in a newspaper interview, knocking the organization and saying: “You understand why they haven’t won here in 100 years.”

The Cubs’ idea is to split the difference on monies owed — Wells’ $107 million and Bradley’s $21 million for a difference of $86 million. Each team absorbs $43 million. Toronto Sun.

The money split is horribly written there, and a bit hard to understand. If the suggestion is that the Blue Jays would take all of Bradley’s contract, and then also eat $43 million of Wells’ deal, the Cubs would be getting Wells for six years and a total of $64 million. That money isn’t terrible, but Wells has suffered through two terrible seasons in the last three years, and at 30, he’ll be no spring chicken by the end of the deal.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, the Cubs have strongly denied working on such a swap. Of course, in the same article, sources speculate that the Cubs are looking at swapping Bradley for Anaheim Angels outfielder Gary “Oh God No” Matthews, Jr.