The Cubs need outfield help and they probably can’t lock up long term dollars towards the position due to contracts already on the books, a parent company with a bond rating that aspires to be classified as junk, and uncertainty over their future ownership.

Fortunately for the Cubs, there’s a glut of outfielders who could help in the short term, but are probably not guys you want on the team for more than two years. With Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, and Manny Ramirez all on the market, the supply of power hitting outfielders probably outstrips the demand.

And this creates an opportunity for Jim Hendry.

Instead of offering one of these guys 4 or more years at $13 million plus per year (or $20 million in the case of Scott Boras / Manny Ramirez), Hendry could offer one of them two years at $15 million per year. Or, maybe even better, one year at say $17 million.

Sure, these guys could all pass. But they aren’t all getting long term huge deals. Maybe one of them would be gutsy enough to take a one year deal. The upside would be that, should the player have a great year, the supply of outfielders after the 2009 season could be smaller and that would still land them a long term deal.

The choice here would be Abreu in right for one or two years.