Questionable Trades

There were two trades made yesterday and both were somewhat puzzling.

Trade #1, Royals send 2 prospects (Derek Saito and Dan Cortes) to the Mariners for SS Yuniesky Betancourt. The Royals SS this year have been miserable. Mike Aviles is on the DL but has hit .183/.208/.250, backup Luis Hernandez has hit .159/.235/.204, backup Tony Pena has hit (if you want to even call it that) .089/.128/.111, and supersub Willie Bloomquist has hit a respectable .280/.329/.385. So like you see, it's safe to say the Royals needed a SS, the problem is Yuniesky Betancourt is not a solution. He has already been benched this year for not hustling, and he isn't even a cheap player. in 2010 he's owed $3m, $4m in 2011 and a club option for 2012 for $6m with a $2m buyout. Betancourt has a career .299 wOBA and currently has a career low .270 wOBA this year. He can't pick it either as last year his glove cost the Mariners 12.7 runs according to UZR, and this year he's been even worse. It doesn't matter what the Royals gave up (and Cortes was actually a pretty high rated prospect) they replaced a bunch of no hit mediocre field SS with a no hit no field SS. It's one thing to complain that you don't have money to spend, but it's another thing to waste several million on Betancourt, Jose Guillen, Mike Jacobs, Horacio Ramirez, and Kyle Farnsworth. The Mariners new GM Jack Zduriencik has already impressed and this move doesn't question that. The Royals GM Dayton Moore has looked questionable with some of his recent moves, and this move only underscores that.

Trade #2, Mets send Ryan Church to Atlanta for Jeff Francoeur. Ryan Church has had some trouble staying healthy but while he's been healthy he's usually performed above average, and even though this year he hasn't, he's still been more effective than most the OF the Mets can put on the field. So the Mets decided to trade him to the Braves for a guy that according to Minaya "One thing we like about Francoeur is the amount of games that he plays." Minaya is right, Francoeur plays more games, but in those more games he's less effective than Church. Take a look at their recent WAR. In 2008 Francoeur played 155 games and had a -1.3 WAR, and this year in 82 games it's -.6. In 2008 Church played in 90 games and has a 1.6 WAR, and this year in 67 it's .4. Ryan Church's injury woes are certainly a frustrating thing, but it's not as frustrating as a consistent terrible performance that Frenchie will give you. I'm sure Minaya is feeling pressure from ownership to make a move (possibly for a white player?) the problem is there are 50,000 better moves he can do than this one...unless Frenchie can pitch.

With Jeff Francoeur's loss of his ability to field (UZR/150 of 16.9, -4.9, -1.5 the last 3 seasons) and Yuniesky Betancourt's lack of ability to do anything even slightly below average on a baseball field, the Mets and Royals acquired two players who rate among the worst regulars in the entire major leagues. Instead of keeping players who earn less than they are worth or promising pitching prospects, these teams decided it'd be better to spend millions on players worse than any AAA player they could call up. I'm being serious, on the Buffalo Bisons the Mets could call up OF Emil Brown, and on the Omaha Royals, the Royals could call up IF Tug Hulett, and both would likely be improvements over Francoeur and Betancourt.