He was officially sent to the Minor Leagues.

LaRoche, 24, who seemed to have the inside track at the starting third base job when Spring Training started, suffered a torn thumb ligament in a freak injury March 7, underwent surgery and has been on a Minor League injury rehabilitation assignment for two weeks.

In the interim, with third basemen Nomar Garciaparra and Tony Abreu also injured, the Dodgers unexpectedly discovered that 22-year-old Blake DeWitt could handle the job just fine. Garciaparra and Abreu are hurt again, but DeWitt is in the Major Leagues and there's no room for LaRoche.

"The guys we have now are playing well," manager Joe Torre said. "DeWitt has done a nice job. It's best for LaRoche to play more baseball and get it going a little and play every day."

LaRoche hit .318 in six games at Double-A Jacksonville and on Tuesday was moved up to Triple-A Las Vegas, where he was hitting .154 with one homer in four games. He was reinstated from the disabled list and optioned to Las Vegas.