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Padres Release Jim Edmonds

The San Diego Padres have released struggling 37 year old outfielder Jim Edmonds, who had just six its in his last 55 at bats. Jody Gerut, who started the season with the big club, was recalled from AAA Portland to replace him.

It had been hoped that Edmonds would be the latest in a series of successful signings where the Padres have taken chances on guys having one or two more good years in them, a strategy that has paid off in the past with players such as Fernando Valenzuela, Ricky Henderson and Mike Piazza. But instead, Edmonds had posted a .178 average since coming of the DL, where he started the season with a calf injury. In addition, he had struck out in more than 25% of his at bats and was not playing center field with the proficiency expected from an eight time gold glove winner.

Gerut was hitting over .300 at Portland, with five home runs and 18 RBI’s in 27 games. Gerut and Scott Hairston are likely to share duties in center field, and this may create a three way platoon in left if the Padres continue to let Paul McAnulty work through some struggles of his own.

The Padres also claimed pitcher Sean Henn on waivers from the Yankees. It remains to be seen what roster move the club will make in response to that claim. The bullpen has not lived up to the expectations Padre fans have grown accustomed to after several seasons in which GM Kevin Towers made like Harry Potter with his bullpen acquisitions.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.