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Ted Lilly Finally Comes Home, At A Cost

The full deal isn't known yet, but it appears done. Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post:

Lilly and Theriot for DeWitt -- #Cubs to #Dodgers is done

The full deal, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

Dodgers acquire Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot and $2.5 million for Blake DeWitt, Brett Wallach and Kyle Smit

Ted Lilly was but a Aaron Miller when he was traded to the defunct Expo's at the age of 22, after being the Dodgers 23rd round pick in the 1996 draft. Lilly was not the centerpiece of the deal, Peter Bergeron was. Lilly  climbed to AAA in a very short  period, and was a good prospect when he was dealt.

July 31, 1998: Traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers with Jonathan Tucker (minors), Peter Bergeron and Wilton Guerrero to the Montreal Expos for Hiram Bocachica, Mark Grudzielanek and Carlos Perez.

One year later he was in the major leagues with the Expos. Once Lilly became a full time starter with Yankee's in 2001 he's been one of the most consistent LH pitchers this decade plying his trade for the Expos, Yankees, A's, BlueJays, and Cubs. In 2007 he signed a four year deal with the Cubs and fulfilled every bit of his contract. Since joining the NL he has not had a WHIP above 1.226 and his ERA+  has been as high as 145 in 2008.

He didn't get started in 2010 until late April because of minor surgery but again, he's been Mr. Consistent, and any team would be happy to have him in their rotation. The only problem with Ted Lilly being a Dodger is that he will only be a Dodger for two months, and it is doubtful his two months anchoring the back end of the rotation will make a hill of beans difference in the Dodgers plight this year. We will have traded some of our future, for the present, but when the future is done on Oct 3rd, the future will have only Kershaw and Billingsley in the rotation.

With a salary of $12,000,000 in 2010, no way will the Dodgers be offering him arbitration so his being a Type A is not going to mean much.  The Dodgers could have signed Lilly in the winter of 2006 instead of Jason Schmidt, if so history might be different. Ned has tried to make up for that mistake by acquiring him now, but his penchant for trading the future for the present is gutting the Dodgers of some fine cost controlled players.

This team has bigger problems then trying to compete for a 2010 playoff spot, they need some players for 2011, and trading your starting second baseman for a 2010 rental borders on massive incompetence. This is not a playoff team, and Ted Lilly or PodBoy is not going to change that.