Bedard On the Way to the Left Coast: Trade Completion Should Come Friday

Oh joy. Finally, is this epic ending? Ian from Sox & Dawgs buzzed on this just a few moments ago, but Erik Bedard is heading to Seattle for a physical. I would figure any day now, the news that the trade is complete will come out...

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer: Erik Bedard is -- gasp -- no longer at home in Ottawa.

Bedard is en route to Seattle as of Thursday morning, setting up a physical exam later in the day and an announcement of the completion of a trade between Baltimore and Seattle that will bring Bedard into the Mariners' fold.

Sources say Bedard got on a 7 a.m. flight that, with a connection, should get him into Seattle any minute now.

The left-handed starting pitcher will come at quite a price -- outfielder Adam Jones, left-handed reliever George Sherrill and minor leaguers Chris Tillman, Tony Butler and Kam Mickolio.

It's a remote possibility that the press conference announcing the trade will take place later today, but it's much more likely that the official word will come down tomorrow, giving the Mariner medical crew ample time to conduct and evaluate Bedard's physical examination.

Jones and Sherrill both had their physicals in Baltimore on Monday and both are currently in Arizona waiting to see if/when the trade goes down.

This will the endgame for a trade that has dragged on for two months and that, even after Jones was first told of his part in it, has limped along for almost two weeks now.