Right field ought to be an easy position to decide what to do with. The Cubs should be standing pat. Milton Bradley had a down year but was still worth most of his salary, according to Fangraphs, which values his contribution in 2009 at $5.2 million. And it doesn’t make sense to try to trade a player you know is good when he’s coming off a down year - I believe they call that “selling low.” And it especially doesn’t make any sense when you have nobody close as good as him to replace him.

But it’s apparent that that’s what the Cubs intend to do. After suspending Bradley, Jim Hendry has no leverage in trading him, and the Cubs will no doubt pay a large portion of his salary for him to play for another team. This is in spite of the fact that for all the talk about chemistry surrounding this team, Piniella said on ESPN 1000 yesterday that the most important thing for clubhouse atmosphere is winning. (Listen to the sound clip, starting from about 14:00.)

So it seems odd that the Cubs will squander resources to send Bradley to play for another team. Not that there aren’t good options for the corner outfield spots out there. Matt Holliday and Jason Bay are free agents-to-be, and Manny Ramirez may opt out of his contract.

The problem with all three players is money - they’re all going to cost a lot more than Bradley did, and when you factor in the portion of Bradley’s salary the Cubs are going to have to pick up, to sign any of them the Cubs are going to have to invest close to $30 million into right field to pick up any of those players.

So the list actually looks a lot slimmer. In fact, it looks like Kosuke Fukudome moving back to right field (where his bat doesn’t play as well but he’s a great defender) or some unholy combination of Micah Hoffpauir, Jake Fox, Sam Fuld and possibly Reed Johnson. It’s not exactly appealing, and it makes me wonder: if winning breeds chemistry, aren’t the Cubs setting themselves up for more bad chemistry here?