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Padres release OF Jim Edmonds

Jim Edmonds’ outstanding career may have reached its nadir. The 8-time Gold Glove winner and 4-time all-star was released by the San Diego Padres on Friday.

Edmonds, 37, was acquired in the offseason from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for third base prospect David Freese. Edmonds began the 2008 season on the DL with a calf injury and has struggled to the tune of .184/.270/.241 in 101 PA in 2008.

Outfielder Jody Gerut was recalled from Triple-A Portland to take Edmonds’ spot on the 25-man roster. Also an offseason addition, Gerut made the Padres’ roster out of spring training but was later optioned to Portland. Gerut, who missed the 2006 and 2007 seasons while recovering from a serious knee injury, was hitting .308/.372/.570 at Portland.

TG Analysis

Releasing veterans and eating their salaries- it’s what all the cool GM’s are doing these days.

There are obvious signs of decline in Edmonds’ game, but this does come off as somewhat hasty. Rather than eating $6M and replacing him with a Gerut/Scott Hairston platoon, the Padres probably should have given Edmonds a little more time to see if he had anything left to give. If not, at least you attempted to get maximum value out of the investment, and if Edmonds did happen to show some glimmer of his former self, perhaps San Diego could have gotten a warm body and some percentage of his salary paid off by another team.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Jim Edmonds, Padres. 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.