Bradley, Burrell are just about the last of this winter's big deals

By Cliff Corcoran, Special to SI.com

Milton Bradley led the American League in on-base percentage and OPS in 2008. Nick Laham/Getty Images

Only three teams in baseball won 97 or more games last year, and two of them got better this week, as the NL Central champion Chicago Cubs and AL champion Tampa Bay Rays both filled significant holes in their lineups via free agency. The Cubs' catch is Milton Bradley, who agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal to become Chicago's new rightfielder, thereby allowing Kosuke Fukudome to slide over to fill the team's hole in centerfield. The Rays, meanwhile, struck an absolute bargain by signing Pat Burrell to a two-year, $16 million deal to be their designated hitter.

The Burrell deal is the smaller of the two in dollars and years, but it will have a far greater impact. Though much maligned by the rapacious Philadelphia fan base for much of his career due to his brutal play in leftfield and his failure to live up to the impossible expectations that came with his being the top pick in the 1998 draft, Burrell, 32, has been a very productive and consistent hitter. Over the past four seasons he has compiled an aggregate line of .262/.386/.504 while averaging 31 homers and 103 walks per year. His fielding woes won't be an issue in Tampa, and he represents a huge upgrade over the Rays' 2008 designated hitters, led by Cliff Floyd, who combined to hit .246/.322/.428.

The heart of the Rays' order is now five deep and well-balanced, starting with righty B.J. Upton and continuing through lefty Carlos Peña, righty Evan Longoria, lefty Carl Crawford and now the right-handed Burrell in the sixth spot. Add to that lefty-hitting Matt Joyce, whom the Rays picked up in a little-noticed December deal with the Tigers for deposed fifth starter Edwin Jackson. As a 23-year-old rookie last year, Joyce turned his doubles into homers, hitting 25 HRs between Triple-A and platoon duty in the majors and slugging .509 in 249 plate appearances against big league righties. Joyce will platoon with either Ben Zobrist or Fernando Perez in rightfield in 2009 and should add power to the bottom of the Rays order as a replacement for journeyman Gabe Gross. Trading Jackson, meanwhile, made room for postseason rookie sensation and 2007 No. 1 draft pick David Price to join the rotation.

As good as they were last year, the Rays weren't going to win 97 games again without making improvements. Simply regressing to their 2008 Pythagorean record would have cost them five wins, but with Price, Burrell and the Joyce/Perez platoon representing significant upgrades on Jackson, Floyd, Gross and assorted fill-ins, the Rays could very well repeat or even improve on their surprising 2008 showing, much the way the 1992 Braves surpassed their worst-to-first showing the previous year.

Indeed, with Upton, 24, having regained his home run stroke in the postseason following a year in which his power had been sapped by a torn labrum, Longoria entering his first full season after being named AL Rookie of the Year and Crawford looking to bounce back entering his walk year, the Rays could experience a significant increase in their run scoring in 2009, while a strong rookie season from Price, 23, would help balance out any regression experienced by the other starters. Meanwhile, having the right-handed Burrell in a lineup with fellow righty sluggers Upton and Longoria makes the Rays well-prepared for their impending AL East showdowns with lefty aces CC Sabathia of the Yankees and Jon Lester of the Red Sox following a season in which Tampa Bay struggled against lefty starters. Thus, in part due to their sizeable head-start, the Rays have kept pace with the Yankees' $423.5 million spending spree at the low, low cost of $16 million.

The Bradley deal is less of a home run. Though Bradley, who turns 31 on April 15, makes the Cubs a better team by the sheer dint of his talent, there are serious questions about just how much of that talent the Cubs will get to see over the course of the deal. That's not because of Bradley's infamous temper, which is old news by now, but because of his chronic leg injuries. Bradley's fragility prevented him from surpassing 460 plate appearances or playing 100 games in the field in all but one of his first six full seasons in the majors. Last year the Rangers became the first of his six previous teams to figure out that the only way to keep him on the field was to keep him off it by making him a designated hitter. Though he complained about the position change, Bradley responded with a career year, hitting .321/.436/.563 and leading the AL in on-base percentage and park-adjusted OPS+.

Still, even as a DH, Bradley only avoided the disabled list because of the Rangers' careful handling. Bradley came up lame several times last season, but the Rangers quickly pulled him from those games and kept him out of the lineup until his legs had loosened back up. As a result, he made only 114 starts and played the field in just 20 of those games, doing so just once after July 4. The Cubs intend to keep Bradley limber by spelling him with Micah Hoffpauir and Fukudome, who would yield centerfield to Reed Johnson on those occasions, but expecting Bradley to play even semi-regularly in the field seems misguided. Giving him a three-year deal to do so without having the DH as a backup option seems downright foolish. That Bradley accepted such a deal smacks of hubris and greed on his part. There's just no way he's going to stay healthy for an NL team, especially into his thirties.

Yet, if Bradley can give the Cubs 300 at-bats this year, he'll make them a better team. No matter the extent of his injuries, he has always produced when able to take the field, and he will be taking most of those at-bats away from weak-hitting centerfield candidates Johnson, Felix Pie and Joey Gathright, who will be collectively replaced by the relocated Fukudome. Still, $10 million is a hefty price tag for a part-time player, and stands in sharp contrast to the bargain the Rays got on Burrell.

The price of Burrell's contract may well have been the result of his personal decision to value signing with a contender over getting top dollar, but it's striking nonetheless, particularly given the current economic recession and the slow pace of the free-agent market this winter. Remember, the Phillies replaced Burrell in December by committing $31.5 million over three years to an older, inferior version of the same player in 36-year-old Raul Ibañez. Just a few weeks later, Burrell has signed for barely more than half as much over two years. That's a significant pay cut for Burrell, who earned $14 million last year, and made more than his new $8 million salary in each of the previous two seasons as well.

Other players who have taken pay cuts this winter include Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Edgar Renteria and Randy Johnson. But Furcal is coming off a year largely lost to back surgery, Renteria was awful in 2008, Johnson is 45 and just looking for a quiet place to pick up his 300th win and Blake is, well, Blake. Jason Giambi, who is believed to be close to a one-year deal that will bring him back to Oakland, is sure to take a pay cut as well, but that's due to the extreme nature of his last contract and his age and injury risk. None of those players hit the market with a record of consistent production to match Burrell's.

Prior to Burrell's signing, it seemed that the money would be there for players in their relative primes coming off big seasons. Top free-agent closers Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes and Kerry Wood didn't get the four years Francisco Cordero got last year, but Cordero was the only big closer on the market last year, and this year's trio each received comparable annual salaries. Bradley and Ibañez both essentially doubled their pay despite injury and age concerns. Still, there are signs that the already slow market is slowing down even further. In addition to Burrell, Fuentes's deal was both the most recent and the smallest of the three big closer contracts, despite his record of success and health and the fact that he signed with the typically free-spending Angels, whereas Wood, who has a terrible injury history, signed with the penny-conscious Indians.

That could be bad news for the remaining free agents. With the Yankees having presumably finished their shopping spree (save perhaps for a one-year deal on a fifth starter), and the Red Sox having restocked on the cheap with righty starter Brad Penny and catcher Josh Bard (two players coming off injury-shortened seasons), two of the biggest spenders have left the table and cashed in their chips. If the Dodgers come to an agreement with Manny Ramirez, which seems very likely now that they've found a way to rid themselves of Andruw Jones by restructuring his contract and freeing up as much as $12 million in 2009 salary in the process, that could lead to another big spender closing up business for the winter.

That means the last three big-ticket free agents -- Derek Lowe, Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn -- will have a much smaller pot to divvy up. The Angels need a bat and would be wise to pick up Abreu or Dunn to toggle between the outfield and DH with Vlad Guerrero and provide a left-handed complement to Guerrero and Torii Hunter in the batting order, but they've played things rather close to the vest thus far.

With Lowe apparently set on returning to the East coast, he would be a fit for the Phillies, who could stand to upgrade on Kyle Kendrick. Lowe's groundballing ways would benefit from the Phils' fine infield defense without being aversely affected by the jet streams in Citizens Bank Park, but there hasn't been much discussion of that particular matchup. Of course, several would-be contenders are in far more desperate need of starting pitching -- the Brewers and Mets especially. But after making an early offer to Sabathia, the Brewers haven't made much noise, and the Mets seemed to cool off after making two big moves to restock their bullpen (K-Rod and J.J. Putz). Meanwhile, after Lowe, the free-agent pool for starters gets pretty shallow, with the inconsistent Oliver Perez, the oft-injured Ben Sheets, past-his-prime Andy Pettitte and marginal arms such as Braden Looper, Paul Byrd, Jon Garland and Randy Wolf.

There are still two compelling middle infielders out there in Orlando Hudson and Orlando Cabrera, but there are few obvious destinations for them because the teams in need, such as the Padres, are unlikely to pay for them. Several other teams have already obtained lesser alternatives, such as the Cardinals trading for Khalil Greene and the Tigers signing Adam Everett. The Blue Jays, who had been rumored to have interest in both Orlandos, don't stand to gain much by trying to upgrade their current double-play combo of Aaron Hill and Marco Scutaro.

After that, the only big names left are those likely to sign inexpensive, incentive-laden deals. Some, such as Sheets, third baseman Joe Crede, outfielder Rocco Baldelli or even Hudson, are coming off injury or illness. Others are aging stars such as Ken Griffey Jr., Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Varitek. As with Burrell, the right match of player, team and contract can still have a significant impact, but aside from Manny and possibly Lowe, it seems likely that we've seen the last truly big deal of this winter.

Cliff Corcoran is a frequent contributor to SI.com.