Giants sign Ryan Theriot

Things just got a lot more complicated for Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford.

According to Jon Heyman at CBS Sports, the San Francisco Giants have agreed to sign free agent infielder Ryan Theriot. It’s a one-year contract worth $1.25 million dollars that also includes $750,00 in performance incentives.

He earned $3.3 million dollars last year before being non-tendered by the St. Louis Cardinals last month.

“The Riot” still needs to pass a physical and—according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News—win a job out of spring training, which I think will be a given.

Theriot, 32, batted .271/.321/.342 with 1 HR, 26 doubles, and 47 RBI in 442 at bats with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.

He provides just what the Giants need—a solid backup to an unproven Crawford, who has been penciled in as the everyday starter at shortstop. His playing time may have just taken a major hit with this pick up.

In seven major league seasons (six with the Cubs), Theriot has posted a career .282/.344/.353 (0.697 OPS) slash line. Translation: He gets on base.

While not as flashy with the leather, Theriot owns a career .972 fielding percentage at short, same as Crawford’s.

The right-handed hitting Theriot will be reunited with Mike Fontenot, who was his teammate in Chicago.

In fact, it was Theriot who drove in Fontenot from second base with the winning run in a 7-6, 10-inning Cubs victory over the Rockies on Apr. 23, 2008—the 10,000th win in Chicago Cubs history. The two were also teammates at LSU and have known each other since high school.

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UPDATE 1/27/12 11:44 a.m. — Now that The Riot is a Giant, you may begin to hear the term TOOTBLAN being tossed about. What exactly is TOOTBLAN? It stands for Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop and originated on a (now-defunct) Cubs blog called Wrigleyville23.com.  From the site:

TOOTBLAN is, of course, Thrown Out on the Basepaths Like a Nincompoop – a component of the Ryan Theriot Adjusted On-Base Percentage (RTAOBP). Both were invented here at WV23 as an exercise in rationalizing Theriot’s deceptively high OBP in 2008.

Now you know.