Royals Get Rid Of Yuniesky Betancourt

As far as I’m concerned, that’s the big news in the AL Central today. KC sent Yuniesky Betancourt, some starting pitcher and cash to the Milwaukee Brewers for prospects. Of course, that starting pitcher was Zack Greinke – but we’ve been assuming for a while that he’d be dumped, right? The big surprise, of course, is that someone took Betancourt off of their hands.

But, I’ll get back to Betancourt later. Now to most everyone (other than me) Zack Greinke is the big deal here, and fans around the country (including Detroit) will be a little disappointed that the one true Cy Young caliber pitcher still on the block didn’t wind up on their team. I will admit, Greinke wearing a D would have given the Tigers the rotation that they need to beat the Twins and the White Sox in 2011. Still, I didn’t have much hope that a deal could have been made that would not have crippled the Tigers in 2013. So my immediate reaction wasn’t surprise or disappointment.

Kansas City’s haul is as follows: Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odorizzi. Cain is a centerfielder, Escobar a shortstop, Jeffress a power reliever and Odorizzi a starter. All but Odorizzi are major-league ready and the three all saw some time with the Brewers in 2010. Odorizzi is not irrelevant, he was a supplemental pick in 2008 and chewed up A-ball in 2010 at the age of 20. He was a top-10 prospect in the Milwaukee organization even before the 2010 season, and he may well turn out to be the most important prospect involved – much like PTBNL Bonderman was the most important of the prospects the Tigers got for Jeff Weaver. Think of Odorizzi as the Bonderman of the deal. Still, he’s not ready to make an immediate impact so I’ll focus on the others.