Soto gets call; Pie back to Iowa

The Cubs plan to open the second half of the season with three catchers while the Felix Pie Era gets put on hold again.

Geovany Soto, the team's top catching prospect, joined the Cubs on Thursday at Wrigley Field and will be added to the roster for this afternoon's series opener against Houston. Soto, the third-leading hitter in the Pacific Coast League (.341), goes right into the lineup today, catching ace Carlos Zambrano, manager Lou Piniella said.

''We're going to give him a look and see,'' said Piniella, who talked much of last week about wanting to add a right-handed hitter such as Soto to the roster. ''He's been playing very well down in Triple-A and been hitting the ball.''

With Michael Barrett gone in last month's trade with San Diego and catchers Koyie Hill (.148) and Rob Bowen (.074 since being acquired for Barrett) hitting poorly, Soto has an opportunity to win a big-league starting job.

''I look at it as just doing the best I can, and whatever happens, happens,'' he said.

Pie, who's hitting .216 in two stints with the Cubs, hasn't started in two weeks and will be optioned to Class AAA Iowa to get at-bats, general manager Jim Hendry said.

''Hopefully, he'll get it together in the next couple weeks,'' Hendry said.

Today's moves don't solve the Cubs' other major objective coming out of the break: adding a 12th pitcher to the staff.

That move is expected to come Sunday, with right-hander Billy Petrick returning from the minors, or possibly early next week with the activation from the disabled list of closer Ryan Dempster.

Either way, that means moving another position player off the roster, possibly one of the three catchers.

The discolored patch of outfield left from the Police concerts at Wrigley last week has been groomed and at least some of it painted green. But team officials say there are no holes and the surface is playable. ''It can't be any worse than what it was before,'' outfielder Cliff Floyd said.

•   •   Zambrano's arrival from Venezuela was delayed by bad weather in Miami. He missed Thursday's workout but was expected to arrive later in the night without affecting today's scheduled start.