Chicago Cubs: Ten players you may have forgotten were once on the team

Chicago Cubs: Jim Edmonds

We end this list with outfielder Jim Edmonds. I’m sure I joined many Chicago Cubs fans in having mixed feelings about Edmonds joining the Cubs after he was a villain for so many years with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Starring mostly with the Cardinals and Angels, Edmonds boasts a career WAR of 60.4. He was a four-time All-Star and placed in MVP voting six times. He collected 1,949 hits, 393 home runs, 437 doubles, and 1,199 RBIs. He was also an elite defender, making lots of highlight-reel plays and winning eight Gold Glove Awards. It wasn’t quite a Hall of Fame career, but it is at least a Hall of Very Good career.

After the 2007 season, the Cardinals traded Edmonds to the San Diego Padres for future World Series hero David Freese. Edmonds was terrible in his brief time in San Diego, and the Padres gave up in him after just over a month. The Cubs quickly snatched him up, and he would go on to hit 19 home runs in only 85 games, forming a solid platoon in center field with Reed Johnson.

As we remember, the Cubs were quickly knocked out of the playoffs in 2008, so, unfortunately, the Edmonds signing didn’t help them in that regard. Edmonds played briefly for the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers in 2010, meaning that he played for every N.L. Central team except the Pirates. Did that complicate his legacy with Cardinals fans? Apparently not, as he’s been doing T.V. work for them.