Jim Edmonds

James Patrick Edmonds, known by Jim Edmonds among baseball fans (and certainly Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals fans), played parts of 17 seasons at the major league level. He played 1,105 games for the Cardinals and 85 games for the Cubs.

Let's cut to the chase here; Edmonds spent a lot more time tormenting Cubs fans than he ever did aiding them. He played in nearly a season's worth of games against the North Siders, primarily during his time in St. Louis, accruing a .270/.392/.538 slash line with 32 home runs, 75 RBIs, and 90 runs in 452 at-bats. That might not quite be MVP-caliber production, but it's pretty darn close. Any time a player has a career .930 OPS against a single team, it's safe to say they owned them.

Originally drafted in the seventh round of the 1988 MLB Draft by the Angels, Edmonds starred on the West Coast for seven seasons, winning the first two of his eight Gold Gloves in center field in 1997 and 1998. After an injury-plagued campaign in 1999, the Angels chose to trade Edmonds to the Cardinals in exchange for second baseman Adam Kennedy and pitcher Kent Bottenfield. He became an institution in St. Louis over the next eight years, winning six Gold Gloves while accruing 37.9 WAR and a .285/.393/.555 slash line. Of course, he was also among the key figures in the team's championship run in 2006, the Cardinals' first World Series title in 24 years.

Because I don't like the Cardinals — and I imagine most of you feel the same — I won't belabor more of his success in St. Louis. He was a dominant player who spent his prime with the Cubs' biggest rival, and he probably deserved a lot more Hall of Fame recognition than he got when he went one-and-done on the 2016 ballot with just 2.5% of the vote. I did not enjoy watching the guy destroy the Cubs for the better part of a decade, but it's a disgrace he didn't at least make it to a second year in the voting process. He was one of the best center fielders in baseball for 15 years.

I digress. Following the 2007 season, Edmonds was traded to the San Diego Padres for future World Series MVP David Freese, somehow further helping the Cardinals even after his departure. He made it just 90 at-bats into his Padres tenure before being released, at which point the Cubs, in need of a left-handed bat, signed Edmonds to a one-year contract of which they were only responsible for the league minimum. He certainly wasn't a fan favorite, but Edmonds did produce a 1.1 WAR, .937 OPS half-season in Chicago, even starting in all three of their postseason games in the NLDS where they were swept by the Dodgers. He was, for all intents and purposes, the starting center fielder on the best team that Cubs had decades, and he even endeared himself to fans when he hit two home runs in the same inning against the Chicago White Sox in June.

After the 2008 season, Edmonds sat out the next campaign because he didn't receive any contract offers to his liking. He returned in 2010 to post a productive half-season with the Milwaukee Brewers before getting traded to the Cincinnati Reds, meaning Edmonds played for two-thirds of the NL Central within a four-year stretch (at that time, the Houston Astros were still in the NL Central, and Edmonds never played for them nor the Pittsburgh Pirates). Edmonds re-signed with the Cardinals in 2011, though he was forced to retire prior the start of the regular season due to a lingering Achilles issue. He now serves in a studio and color commentator role for Cardinals games.