Major League Baseball

Sources: Cubs sign CF Byrd for three years, $15M

Published Dec. 31, 2009 12:00 a.m. ET

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Ken Rosenthal

The Cubs have found their center fielder.

The team signed free agent Marlon Byrd to a three-year, $15 million contract Thursday, according to major-league sources.

The Cubs also had been considering free agents Scott Podsednik and Rick Ankiel, but consider Byrd the best all-around player of the three.

Byrd, 32, is coming off a career-best season with the Rangers in which he batted .283 with 20 homers and 89 RBIs.

The Cubs will reunite him with his hitting coach from Texas, Rudy Jaramillo, who earlier agreed to a three-year deal with the team.

The signing of Byrd will make Kosuke Fukudome the Cubs’ full-time right fielder, replacing Milton Bradley, who was traded to the Mariners.

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