Cubs move on following Bradley’s ban.

The Chicago Cubs are trying to move past the latest distraction in a disappointing season.

Volatile outfielder Milton Bradley was suspended for the rest of the year Sunday, a day after criticizing the team in a newspaper interview. Manager Lou Piniella said Monday it will be general manager Jim Hendry’s decision whether the Cubs bring back Bradley next season.

“We’re moving on from yesterday. I fully support Jim’s actions and now it’s time to look to the present and look ahead, not behind,” Piniella said. “Our (goal is) to finish up as strong as we can for the next 14 games, play some kids and take a look at them, and win as many games as we can. That’s all that we can do.”

The 31-year-old Bradley has two years remaining on a US$30 million, three-year contract he signed with Chicago as a free agent last off-season.

“When you manage a baseball team what you want is the least distractions that you can possibly have,” Piniella said. “You try to shy away from distractions. My job basically is to get guys to play and to play as well as possible and that’s what I try to do.”

Bradley has had a rough time with the Cubs, hitting .257 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs, and being booed by fans at Wrigley Field. In the newspaper story, he told a reporter there wasn’t a “positive environment” in the organization and he could see why the Cubs haven’t won a championship in 100 years.

The mood in the Cubs’ clubhouse was jovial Monday before they played the Milwaukee Brewers. Players were measuring each other against a door frame to figure out their real heights instead of what’s listed in the team’s media guide.

Alfonso Soriano, who is out for the season after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, got a big welcome from his teammates when he came in after being away from the team the last few days.

Soriano said he didn’t know the specifics about Bradley, but understands how tough the hometown fans can be.

“If they boo, that’s because they want the team to do good. If you’re doing good, they don’t want to boo nobody. If you’re doing bad, maybe they get frustrated and they boo. That’s the way I see it,” Soriano said. “The fans are great, but you have to play good. You have to play for them.”

The oft-injured Bradley has a history of boorish behavior during 10 years in the majors with seven teams, but Brewers manager Ken Macha said Bradley was his best player in the playoffs with Oakland in 2006.

Macha recalled once having to push Bradley back to the dugout to keep from going after an umpire, but said he was thanked for his intervention about two weeks later.

“He’s intense — let me put it that way,” Macha said. “He’s got a tremendous desire to win.”

Piniella said the worst part of the situation is the criticism Hendry has received for the signing.

“You don’t do things because you don’t think they’re going to work, and you do your homework. Do they work out all the time? I don’t think anybody’s a miracle man where things can work out all the time,” Piniella said. “The amazing thing is when things don’t work you take more heat than when they work.”

Chicago is in the middle of a 10-game road trip that includes three games in Milwaukee before a four-game trip to San Francisco.

Piniella said left-hander Ted Lilly would be pushed back until this weekend in favour of hard-throwing right-hander Jeff Samardzija and that Rich Harden, who was skipped Monday because of his high workload this season, may make the other weekend start against the Giants.