Shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt’s rocky road with the Mariners came to an end Friday when Seattle traded him to the Kansas City Royals for a pair of minor league pitchers.
The Mariners sent Betancourt and about $1 million to the Royals in exchange for right-handed pitcher Danny Cortes and left-handed pitcher Derrick Saito.
Cortes was the Royals’ minor league Pitcher of the Year last season when he was 10-4 with a 3.78 ERA as a starter at Double-A Northwest Arkansas. However, he had run into disfavor a couple of weeks ago when he was arrested on charges of public intoxication and disorderly conduct outside an Arkansas bar.
Mariner general manager Jack Zduriencik was well aware of the charges against Cortes and said the club made a thorough investigation of Cortes before the deal went through.
“He’s a good kid who made a mistake,” Zduriencik said. “It’s behind him.”
That’s yet to be seen. What is clear is that Betancourt’s history of inconsistent play is behind the Mariners. Neither Zduriencik nor manager Don Wakamatsu would talk in any negative way about Betancourt.
And the shortstop was well-liked by his teammates on a personal level. Professionally, however, teammates questioned how hard he worked and how well he took instruction. Betancourt was looked upon by some as one of the best young defensive shortstops in the game in 2005 and 2006. But the past two seasons have seen a serious degradation in his defensive skills.
Betancourt was in the Seattle clubhouse Friday, clearing out his locker and preparing to join the Royals. While he was talking with the media, pitcher Felix Hernandez walked by and shouted, “Yuni, I love you, and I’m going to miss you. And the first pitch I’ll throw (to Betancourt) will be a fastball.”
The Mariners face Kansas City on the road Aug. 4-6. And a few minutes later, Hernandez was again going past the scrum when he amended his previous statement by saying “it’ll be a first-pitch curve, then a changeup, then strike three.”
For the Royals, the deal gives them a shortstop with a career .282 average who has averaged 155 games played the past three seasons. And they get some cash to defray the remainder of his $2 million contract this year and part of his $3 million deal for next year.
Seattle gets the gem of the Royals’ minor league pitching corps in Cortes and frees up lots of cash down the road. Betancourt signed a contract extension in April 2007 in which he is guaranteed $4 million 2011 and either $6 million in 2012 if he plays or a $2 million buyout.
“When I signed the contract, I knew there was the possibility of a trade,” Betancourt said. “But I thought I would be here long term. But this is baseball. Things happen.”
Zduriencik said that although his first goal in any trade “is always to acquire talent,” the finances clearly had a role to play in the deal. The Mariners can go for the time being with Ronny Cedeno, making $822,500 this year, until either his offense improves to meet the level of his defense or the club makes a deal for another shortstop. And Zduriencik might find management gives him a little more financial flexibility now in making a trade-deadline deal with the savings he has provided down the road.
“We’re getting a right-hander who isn’t far away (from the big leagues),” Zduriencik said, deflecting the question about finances, “someone who has a power curve and a power arm. And we’ll see what happens from here.”
Zduriencik has made it clear that he wants the Mariners to be playing for this year. After all, the Rangers haven’t been proven winners in a decade and the Angels just put half of their offense – outfielders Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero – on the disabled list.
But he’s keeping an eye on next year; that much is self-evident.
The 22-year-old Cortes, who is 6-foot-6 and 216 pounds, was the Royals’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year last season and was rated by Baseball America as the Royals’ top pitching prospect entering 2009. He was 6-2 with a 3.12 in his past 11 games dating to May 7 after he started the season 0-4 with a 5.96 ERA in his first five starts. His overall record is 6-6 with 3.92 ERA.
“Any time you have a chance to trade for the best pitcher in someone else’s system, it’s a deal you have to think about,” Zduriencik said. “I’m happy with the trade.”
Saito, 21, is 2-6 with one save and a 4.26 ERA in 21 games as a reliever with Class-A Burlington in the Midwest League. He’s a native of Hawaii and is in his second year in professional baseball.
