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Will the Cubs find someone to take Milton Bradley off their hands? Chris De Luca thinks he knows just the team that might do it ...

Tom Ricketts just needs a nod from a bankruptcy judge -- business is booming for those guys these days -- and he gets the keys to the Cubs, possibly by the end of this month.

And one of the first official acts of the Ricketts era could be officially cutting ties with outfielder/villain Milton Bradley. Cue the applause.

--snip--

A trade is the only option.

Sources say the Cubs have been pushing the Tampa Bay Rays for a quick deal. The Rays were one of Bradley's top suitors last winter until the Cubs let the world know they had a three-year, $30 million offer on the table. The Rays loved Bradley's on-base magic and manager Joe Maddon is so self-assured -- to a fault -- he believed he could handle Bradley's unique personality as deftly as Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington did in 2008.

The Rays emerged as potential trade partners because they are looking to shed their own deal gone bad. After losing out on Bradley last winter, the Rays signed outfielder Pat Burrell to a two-year, $16 million contract. Burrell attracted the Rays' attention for his power potential and his consistently high on-base percentage. His OBP in 2008 was .367, a year after it was .400. His OBP was .365 or higher every season since 2004.

Then it dropped to .315 this season as Burrell made a rough transition to designated hitter. He hit just .221 with 14 home runs and 64 RBI. And the Rays are looking for a place to dump the body.

Enter the Cubs.

Look, there are all sorts of ways to win baseball games. Could the Cubs win 90-some games with Alfonso Soriano in left field, Kosuke Fukudome in center field, and Pat Burrell in right field? Sure. Baseball's a funny game. But it's hard to win 90 when you open the season having already given away four of five games with unspeakably awful outfield defense. If the Cubs are going to trade Bradley to the Rays, they should at least ask for someone who can actually, you know, play the outfield (for example, Matt Joyce).

The Cubs got into this mess by forgetting that there's no DH in National League games. Now would be an excellent time to remember.