Jim Edmonds Career Tracker

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All indications are that Jim Edmonds won't be officially a member of the Cubs until after tonight's game.

At that point, the club is expected to announce the signing of Edmonds and the assigning of Felix Pie to Class AAA Iowa.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Edmonds is not in Chicago. But he may be in a Cubs uniform by Thursday's series finale against the Padres.

So he'll start off against his former team? That's kind of interesting.

Sorry about the low-quality of this post. I wanted to reply but couldn't think of anything good to say.

Hollywood Edmonds en route to Chicago

Paul Sullivan, 5:19 p.m.

Jim Edmonds is expected to be in a Cubs uniform Thursday afternoon, playing centerfield and batting ninth in the lineup.

Ninth?

“He’s going to hit ninth,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I’m going to move the pitcher to eighth, and hit him ninth.”

Piniella was joking, of course, and spent most of Wednesday’s press conference trying to avoid talking about the new Cubs outfielder.

The Edmonds’ signing won’t be official until he passes a physical tonight, so Piniella was wary of discussing the subject.

As has been discussed repeatedly over the last few days, many fans consider the 37-year-old Edmonds washed up, and are wondering why the Cubs would sign him, even for $284,000, the pro-rated amount of the minimum salary. San Diego and St. Louis are responsible for the rest of the $7.7 million he’s owed this year.

Asked if Edmonds had lost a step in the outfield, Piniella hedged.

“I haven’t seen him play all spring,” Piniella said. “I never saw him. We played San Diego three or four times and he never played against us. I don’t know. We’re going on past history and we’re going on what our scouts say. That’s it. We’re going to give him an opportunity, assuming he passes his physical, and we’ll go from there. That’s all we can do.”

The Cubs will have to make a roster move to make room for Edmonds. While Felix Pie is expected to be sent down to Triple-A Iowa, the Cubs may also put Daryle Ward on the disabled list within the next day or two. Piniella said Ward’s back is bothering him and he can’t run.

That would give the Cubs an opportunity to bring up another outfielder, perhaps Matt Murton or Micah Hoffpauir, to serve as the fifth outfielder behind Alfonso Soriano, Edmonds, Kosuke Fukudome and Reed Johnson.

Edmonds’ calf injury in spring training could be the reason for his slow start in San Diego, though there’s also the possibility he’s cooked. Piniella said the calf problem “could explain the slow start. We’ll find out.”

Is this a low-risk gamble by the Cubs?

“What did Jim (Hendry) say?” Piniella replied. “Whatever Jim said is fine with me.”

The Cubs general manager said he’d have an announcement on Edmonds after tonight’s game, and that he’d be activated on Thursday if he passes the physical.

“Obviously if it wasn’t something we felt could possibly help us, we wouldn’t have looked into it,” Hendry said.

Hendry said Edmonds does not need any at-bats in the minors, and should be ready to go on Thursday. The scouting reports Hendry received on Edmonds were mostly positive.

“I think in general, most people feel he has something left in the tank,” Hendry said. “I think he’s going to be a motivated player. Obviously we’re not going to ask him to go out there every single day. The people we had watching him in their normal coverage -- we weren’t scouting him -- felt that he was getting better right before he was sent out. So we’ll see.”

So will Edmonds be the 2008 version of Gary Gaetti, or the reincarnation of Phil Nevin?

We’ll find out soon.