4/21 Hoyer: No Jackson yet

Trading Marlon Byrd will naturally create expectations that Brett Jackson is coming to Wrigley Field. Not yet, GM Jed Hoyer said. Jackson will stay at Triple-A Iowa for now. In 15 games, Jackson was  batting .242 with two homers, five doubles, two triples, two stolen bases and eight RBIs.

“Brett’s playing hard and all the reports on what he’s doing in Iowa are good,” Hoyer said. “He’s still early in his Triple-A career. He hasn’t had that many plate appearances down there. He still has work to do. We feel he’s a big part of our future but I wouldn’t read into anything as far as timing.”

The Cubs did add outfielder Tony Campana to the roster on Saturday when they placed pitcher Ryan Dempster on the disabled list and will use him in center as well as Reed Johnson and Joe Mather.

Byrd, 34, was hitting just .070 over his first 43 at-bats. He did not play Saturday in the Cubs’ win over the Reds.

“The slow start didn’t play any part at all,” Hoyer said. “We had talked about a deal [with the Red Sox] at the end of Spring Training. Our feeling was we’ve been trying to acquire relief pitching since the end of the winter. We felt like an area we have some surplus with young players we want to play is in the outfield, so that was a big part of it.”

The Red Sox were in need after injury to Jacoby Ellsbury.

The Cubs, who are already paying a large part of Carlos Zambrano’s contract since he was traded to the Marlins, will cover a significant portion of Byrd’s $6.5 million salary for 2012. It’s the final year of a three-year, $15 million contract.

The Cubs receive reliever Michael Bowden plus a player to be named later, which will be selected from a designated list. It will most likely be a pitcher, Hoyer said.

– Carrie Muskat