Every time I read the news and see ‘The Royals Trade…’ I get very excited. Anymore, I don’t really know why. It’s not like they manage to bring in premiere talent, and it’s not like they open their pocketbook to go get multidimensional guys. Extrapolating from transactions that have occurred over the last year, I estimate by 2012 they’ll be fielding an entire team of platoon and bench players!
I’m going to keep this short, but the latest deal for Yuniesky Betancourt should come as no surprise to any loyal Royals fan. He’s exactly the type of player General Manager Dayton Moore (GMDM) has been coveting recently. He doesn’t hit for power, he doesn’t walk ever (he has walked 70 times in 2206 career plate appearances), doesn’t hustle on offense or defense, and is a product of the Seattle Mariners system!
I realize sometimes that fans (including myself) can be very quickly condescending or critical of front office moves. The beautiful thing about baseball though, is that quantifiable statistics are widely available. Outside of organizational scouts, the people that make these major league decisions aren’t privileged any sort of exclusive, insider, statistical information that we as fans can’t also access.
Scroll halfway down the page and take a look at this excellent writeup devil_fingers wrote for Driveline Mechanics. Just read that, because I don’t want to breakdown the acquisition from a statistical standpoint, it would probably just depress me. Recognizing that the Royals are dead last in the American League in OBP (.311), it would be a prudent move to bring in a player that couple help the team get on base. Betancourt is a career .302 OBP guy, and is only getting on base at a .278 clip this season!
The terms of the contract are even more baffling. Betancourt’s contract is through the 2012 season. He’s scheduled to make 3 then 4 million dollars over the next couple seasons, with a $6 million club option or $2 million buyout in 2012. As part of the deal, the Mariners will continue to finance this year’s contract, and $1 million each of the next two years. That kind of money almost guarantees him the starting SS position, inhibiting Mike Aviles’s development and all but eliminating the need for Tony Pena Jr. (silver lining!!!!).
Of all the blogs I read, from both Mariner and Royals journalists and fans, not a single one assessed this as a good deal for the Royals. I want to root for the Royals organization so very badly, but moves like this make it almost impossible sometimes. I am inclined to rate this 0/5 X’s, but I’m going to give it a half-X simply because we won’t have to put up with TPJ anymore.