Chicago Cubs Headlines for Wednesday

Unless somebody takes nearly all of Bradley's contract, that likely precludes the possibility of the Cubs going after a premier free agent such as Figgins to lead off. But the switch-hitting Castillo (.387 on-base percentage in 2009) would improve the top of the Cubs' batting order and allow Fukudome, one of the few lefty hitters in the order, to move around the lineup.

• Hendry said he had not met with the Texas Rangers about a trade of Bradley for pitcher Kevin Millwood.

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• The Cubs have talked about New York Mets second baseman Luis Castillo this off-season, but a three-way trade involving Bradley, the Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays seems far-fetched.

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• Tampa Bay remains another possible landing place for Bradley.

"If we can make one or two moves in the next couple weeks, that would probably be helpful," Hendry said. "Then it would kind of give you a little better direction of where you wanted to go. We don't need a lot of marquee-type guys. We've got a lot of good players.

"As we've been saying from Day One, we need them to play better. But you're also going to see good players available late. I'm sure there will be some quality non-tenders. There will be some free agents that will be available late in the year as it was last year, maybe even more so this year.

"I think it's going to be an important winter for us if we can pick up some pieces that are good, quality depth-type of guys or guys that can play a few positions."

Bruce Miles also talked to Hendry about Ted Lilly and the possibility of looking for more starting pitching:

"I think we have a lot of options internally," Jim said. "You've got Samardzija. You've got Marshall. You've got Gorzelanny. Those are three quality guys, and we feel good about the progress Samardzija made in Mexico, and Gorzelanny did a respectable job when we got him. Marshall's always been our classic bailout guy. Whatever role we need him to do, he's always started the season high fashion. We feel like we've got it covered. And we've got a real good corps coming in the Double-A rotation. A couple of those guys are fast-track guys."

"Teddy's surgery didn't change the way we look at Teddy. If Teddy pitches April 3, great. If it's April 23, that's OK, too."

He then asked Hendry if he'd be willing to trade prospects away this winter:

"A lot of guys, you don't want to trade," he said. "We're in a situation now, as we all know, we'll be mixing and matching this winter more than just trading prospects for a high-end salary guy. That doesn't seem to make much sense right now, where we're at. We've always felt better about the system than given credit for the last few years. That just goes with the territory. When the big-league club had a real good year last year, 'The system was really good because Soto was Rookie of the Year and the starting shortstop (Theriot) was homegrown and eight pitchers were from the system.' And then when you win 83 and you don't make the postseason, then all of a sudden the system stinks. It's not something we worry about. Tim Wilken (scouting director) has done a good job the last three years. You're starting to see the fruits of his work."

And while the GM meetings are going on in Chicago, with plenty of rumors going around and apparently some opportunity to talk with Jim Hendry, the Trib is still firmly focused on the Sammy Sosa pale skin story. I won't link to it.