Infielder Yuniesky Betancourt has signed a contract to play for los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League, Toros director Jorge Campillo told MiLB.com.
Betancourt, 33, signed a one-year deal with Japan’s Orix Buffaloes last season but hit .141/.139/.155 in 74 plate appearances and eventually was released due to an injury. A veteran of nine Major League seasons, the Cuban-born Betancourt’s last MLB work came with the 2013 Brewers, where he struggled to a .595 OPS. Betancourt typically struggled to get on base in the Majors and was regarded as a below-average defender, but he showed double-digit home run power, topping out at 16 with 2010 Royals. In his nine Major League seasons, he batted a combined .261/.285/.388.
If Betancourt was so bad, how did he get to the majors and have the ability to get so much playing time over the years?
That is a question I’m sure many of us have been wondering for some time.
As someone who watched him the entirety of 2011 and 2013 with the Brewers, it happens when you have literally no alternative. No other player in the organization even remotely close to able to handle SS at the major league level. That’s how Yuniesky Betancourt gets so much playing time.
Jedi Mind Tricks. I am not the SS you want to cut. You want to bat me 8th. I’m a good clubhouse guy. Defensive Metrics Are Garbage. If he has mind control I’m not sure why he is settling for 8th but maybe he’s modest. Or maybe that’s too crazy of a thought to bat him leadoff even in mind control.
When he first came up, he was thought to be a promising young player with star potential. That didn’t pan out, and he regressed, but Dayton Moore still believed in his potential and gave him another chance in KC. When he got to the Brewers, they played him because he was the best they had. They traded Alcides Escobar to KC in the Zack Greinke trade, and didn’t have anyone for shortstop other than Yuni, who went the other way in that deal.
Because guys like Dayton Moore believed in the talent they thought they saw.
No player in baseball history (that I can recall) was given so many chances they didn’t deserve on big league rosters.
He would have been bad for AAA, and was starting year after year in the big leagues.
career OPS+ of 80, below average defender, and somehow was able to accumulate roughly 15 million dollars in his career. Good for him.
He was invited to spring training with the Phillies in 2013. That spring he hit over 400 and some of the fans on the Phillies site were crying when they released him. That same year Mark Reynolds was hitting over 300 with eight home runs at the end of April. Again some of the fans were bemoaning the fact that the Phillies did not try to sign him since we needed a third baseman who could hit. It was at that time that I stopped going to the Phillies site. YB at the end of the year 212/240/355….MR 220/306/393 98 hits and 154 K’s.
Now he can say “I’m bad at shortstop” in 4 languages!
It’s shooting fish in a barrel, but Yuni was probably the worst player I saw in Japan last year.
I’m amazed Melvin was able to restrain himself from signing him again.
He had to give KC a shot to sign him first. It’s their turn after all.