Phillies add Yuniesky Betancourt for depth
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Phillies add Yuniesky Betancourt for depth
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Phillies signed Yuniesky Betancourt, a light-hitting veteran middle infielder, to a minor-league deal Monday. He is invited to big-league spring training, where a chance at a bench job could await.
More than likely, Betancourt will simply provide depth if he agrees to a triple-A assignment. The 30-year-old has spent parts of eight seasons with Seattle, Kansas City and Milwaukee. He has not played in the minors since 2005, save for rehab assignments.
Of course, if the Phillies must rely on Betancourt for anything more than depth, they could be in deep trouble. Betancourt is an out-making machine who has not posted an OPS above .692 in five seasons.
Betancourt's career on-base percentage of .290 is 11th worst in the Expansion Era (since 1961) among players with at least 3,800 plate appearances.
He has played 949 career games at shortstop, and that's what sets him apart from much of the infield depth the Phillies will have in spring training. Kevin Frandsen, who signed for $850,000 guaranteed, cannot play shortstop. Freddy Galvis is the best defender there, but the Phillies could decide he's best suited playing every day at triple A.
Pete Orr, a camp invitee, has limited work at short. Michael Martinez can play there but has his own offensive liabilities. He'll be in camp, too. Andres Blanco was triple-A Lehigh Valley's shortstop in 2012 and he will also be in camp.
Betancourt made $2 million in 2012 but did not finish the season with Kansas City. He was released Aug. 14 and cleared waivers.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
yawn— chollie- What do we want with this guy? Are we that desperate? I'm getting a bad feeling with the signing of marginal players. I think the ship is sinking.— lefty27
- God, make it stop! Why don't you just sign every wannabe to the roster, Amaro? This has to be a record for signing "whatever" to fill the roster.— ghost of callison
- "How dare Ruben signs anyone that is not a former all-star to an irrelevant, minor league deal!!!"
- Generic philly.com commenter— jodya2 - Where is Kevin Elster, Kevin Stocker, and Dale Berra when you need them? I was going to try to give Ruben one more year and give him the benefit of the doubt, but his moves this offseason have been awful. Let's hope Cole, Roy, and Cliff, are back to their stud form, and Howard and Utley can play 120-130 games. Has there ever been more question marks for a Phils team? There is no sure thing ANYWHERE on this roster. The only sure thing we may be able to say is that Ben Revere will play a good defensive center field, steal 30, and hit no homers.— carlosbeltran
- yuniesky betancourt?? i love it! since we're bringing in/back old guys, how about putsy caballero? backup for - would you believe - granny hamner. and he's still alive at 85, putsy is. uh, rube...— bubba church & granny hamner
- at some point in this season, Martinez will be back up with the Phils, you can count on that. He's one of Amaro's Rule 5 sweethearts and he'll give him every chance to redeem himself; additionally, Martinez is clearly one of Manuel favorites. For those who hoped you had seen the last of him when he was dropped from the 40-man in October, think again.
Let's hope instead that they've learned from their mistakes and try to keep Frandsen and hopefully Galvis up all season long but that is highly doubtful with this bunch. Their personnel moves defy logic almost every single time.
Only Amaro would pick up even more garbage under the guise of adding to his Triple A depth, and then have his lackeys on this site explain it away as their hero needs them to.— advantasux - @advantax -- I am really starting to believe that there are shills on this site -- doing the Phillies' bidding. There is no other way to explain the idiocy that you read here. Real fans are starting to get it. I've seen others question all the "positive" spin that appears here.— Copper34
