Ryan Dempster Doesn't Get His Wish, Traded To Rangers

There will be no booing of Ryan Dempster in Wrigley Field Tuesday night.

That's because he has been, at last, traded. Not to the Dodgers, so he could be reunited with his old friend Ted Lilly (who has not pitched since May 23 due to injury), but instead, to the Texas Rangers:

Sources: Rangers send 3B Christian Villanueva and RHP Kyle Hendricks to Cubs for Dempster.

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) July 31, 2012

So the Cubs won't see Dempster again this year (which they might have if he had gone to the Dodgers), and who knows where he'll end up as a free agent in 2013?

Casey Coleman, who (along with Welington Castillo and Adrian Cardenas) was recalled from Iowa after the two trades completed Monday night, will presumably start tonight against the Pirates; his last start was July 26, so he'd be on regular four-day rest. Coleman made 16 relief appearances earlier this year for the Cubs, and most of them were bad; he posted a 7.32 ERA and 1.932 WHIP. Maybe he'll be better off as a starter, though he wasn't very good at Iowa either (5.01 ERA in 11 games, nine of which were starts).

The new Cubs era is beginning. It'll be exciting... soon. The rest of this year, not so much.