Royals Deal for Yuniesky Betancourt

After all that speculation, it became official today. Yuniesky Betancourt has been traded to the Kansas City Royals for Class AA pitcher Danny Cortes and Class A pitcher Derreick Saito. Not sure whether the Mariners had to eat any money. "The opportunity presented itself for us to acquire a pair of talented arms and as we move forward, we felt this was the right thing to do...

The Royals acquired Yuniesky Betancourt and cash from the Mariners for a pair of minor league pitchers, according to Joe Hamrahi of Baseball Daily Digest.

The Seattle Mariners have traded versatile infielder Yuniesky Betancourt to the Kansas City Royals for two minor league pitchers.

As many of you probably know, the Royals traded two minor league pitchers for Seattle shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. The Royals did have to give up Double-A pitcher Daniel Cortes, who has been tagged by some scouts as the best pitcher in the Royals' farm system. They also gave up Single-A reliever Derrick Saito. I have talked to some Mariners fans, and they say this...

This is discouraging. It really is. The Royals traded prospects Danny Cortes and Derrick Saito for Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. Folks, this is your new shortstop. Betancourt is currently rehabbing from a hamstring injury, but when he returns, he will almost certainly become KC’s regular at the most important defensive position on the field. Why is this such bad news...

Lugo vs BetancourtThe Mariners wanted to dump Yuniesky Betancourt and - voila! - the Royals obliged by taking his contract off their hands. The Royals gave up a couple of flotsam and jetsam prospects and will have to pay just $7 million of Betancourt's remaining contract ($2 mil in 2010, $3 million in 2011 and a $2 mil buyout in 2012). Joe Posnanski explains just how horrible Betancourt...

For the last few weeks Mariners fans have been all-but-rioting in an effort to get Yuniesky Betancourt out of town. Those people got their wish as the Kansas City Royals traded two minor leaguers to the Mariners in exchange for the enigmatic shortstop. This is another move in a long line of the Royals acquiring unwanted Mariners, but unlike Gil Meche, Jose Guillen and Willie Bloomquist...

Forgot to mention this one last night, but Mariners third baseman Chris Woodward, seen above working on his fielding yesterday, really deserves some credit, along with Jose Lopez, for last night's victory. Both Woodward and Lopez had been unable to make some key plays during a loss on Wednesday. But last night, they came through huge. Woodward made one of those barehanded plays...

When you do something just for the sake of doing something, you end up with Jeff Francoeur or Yuniesky Betancourt. Change does not equal Progress.(For an example that hits a little closer to home for Nats fans, see Preston Wilson.)

Had enough of yesterday's trades yet? Good, because he's some reactions from around the blogosphere... Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog says he's not sure the Ryan Church-Jeff Francoeur swap makes total sense, and he's not sure if the move will have an impact for either team. Sam Page at Amazin' Avenue says that he's convinced the trade makes...

After de-internetting myself for the past two weeks, I get to come back to this. Any Royals fan knows what "this" is. I don't need to link to anyone's blogs. The fallout is widespread. There isn't much that can be said about the acquisition of Yuniesky Betancourt. Or at least there isn't much that can be said to positively speak about the newest Royal...