Ryan Theriot a Dodger no more, traded to Cardinals

The Dodgers traded infielder Ryan Theriot to the St. Louis Cardinals for right-handed pitcher Blake Hawksworth.

Unlike yesterday's horrific news, this is actually good news. Theriot was not going to return after the signing of Juan Uribe, but many thought he'd be non-tendered.

The Dodgers acquired Hawksworth, 27, who had a really good rookie year for the Cardinals in 2009 (40 innings, 2.03 ERA, 1.10 WHIP). However, his 2010 was not nearly as good. He is a long reliever-type, as he appeared in 45 games last season (eight starts), totaling 90 1/3 innings. A positive sign in Hawksworth's 2010 numbers is he increased his K/9 rate to 6.1 (up from 4.5 in 2009). He was a starter for all but four games in the minors, so he has the stamina to be the Dodgers' long reliever.

Another encouraging sign is Hawksworth had a 3.25 ERA and 1.32 WHIP (a tad high) as a reliever, so he fared much better in that respect.

Hawksworth is making the near the Major League minimum, so the Dodgers (assuming no money is changing hands) will not take on much in terms of payroll. Hawksworth is also out of options, per Eric Stephen of True Blue LA.

Theriot's less-than-spectacular run as a Dodger is thankfully over. He hit .242/.323.283 in his 228 Los Angeles Dodger plate appearances. While he had a nice walk rate, he provided virtually nothing else offensively (42 singles out of 48 hits). Theriot's defense is solid, but not for what he would have made in arbitration -- as much as $4-5 million.

This is not a blockbuster trade by any means, but the Dodgers did well to at least get a potentially serviceable piece for a guy who was going to be off the team come Thursday anyway.

What does this mean for Carlos Monasterios? Potentially nothing. Monasterios was slotted in the long reliever/swingman role for the Dodgers. Then again, it couldn't hurt to have two guys who could start on short notice or throw extended innings if a member of the Dodgers' rotation has a bad outing.

I still wish Juan Uribe wasn't a Dodger, though.