The End Of Yuniesky Betancourt
Ronny Cedeno played shortstop for the Mariners again last night. That’s four games in a row with a couple of off days thrown in. Add it all up, and Yuniesky Betancourt hasn’t been in the line-up in a week. And this time, it’s not an ultimatum with an opportunity attached – the Mariners are ready to pull the plug on the guy. LaRue’s got the good quotes:
Betancourt, who has had meetings with his manager and coaches all season, insists he’s doing nothing different now than ever.
“I’ve been doing the same routine for years,” Betancourt said. “I can’t control the lineup. I’m doing whatever I’ve done in the past.”
That, of course, may well be the issue. Betancourt has never been a hard worker, and the past four days have not served him well.
Since being out of the lineup, his teammates say, Betancourt has not taken a single ground ball.
And Monday, when 12 position players showed up for early batting practice, Betancourt was not among them.
“I was asleep on the plane when they announced that,” Betancourt said.
Clearly, this management group – from general manager Jack Zduriencik to Wakamatsu and his coaches – have had enough of half-assed workouts and a failure to adjust.
The simple truth is, Betancourt has minor league options left, and one plan is to send him down and tell him he won’t be back until he shows his work ethic has changed.
“You can’t play a guy who doesn’t work hard on a team where everyone else busts their ass,” one Mariner said. “I don’t know why this never happened before, but no one in this clubhouse has any doubts about why it’s happened now.”
Well, no one but Yuni.
We’ve all watched first hand as Yuni has regressed from an athletic young player into a complete waste of space and time. His lack of hard work is nothing new – even after an offseason where he trained with Raul Ibanez, he showed up to camp as the same rotund non-athlete that he was at the end of last year. He’s getting worse at every facet of the game, and at this point, he’s not a major league player.
We’ve all had enough, and so have the M’s. If Betancourt wants to actually put in a little bit of effort to live up to the abilities he was born with, great. But he needs to do that in Tacoma, and earn his way back to the major leagues by showing that he cares enough to make himself into a guy who deserves to be here. If that never happens, so be it – I’m perfectly happy never having to watch him play baseball again.
Comments
114 Responses to “The End Of Yuniesky Betancourt”
My last thoughts on this topic:
1. I certainly can appreciate the sensitivity about what certain words have been used to denote in the past, which is why I acknowledged at the outset of my contributions to this thread that a term like “lazy” has been used as a loaded code word in the not too distant past. I guess as someone whose favorite ball player of all time is a Latino (Edgar Martinez, for those of you who missed the significance of the handle), who also happened to be extraordinarily gifted and who prepared meticulously throughout his career, I just assumed that the criticism directed in this forum solely against one player was exactly that: directed at one player.
2. “Work ethic” may mean a lot of different things in many different contexts, and, yes, it may be evaluative or a judgment call. But the fact remains that Betancourt is paid a seven figure salary to do something most of us here probably fantasized about growing up. Further, he has been cajoled, encouraged, threatened — repeatedly — and still refuses to do the basic things his teammates are doing to try to make this a better team, such as taking extra BP, extra infield, etc. Regardless of ethnicity, any ballplayer who conducted himself that way would rightly be open to the scorn of those of us who have invested our passion, time, and money in the Seattle Mariners over the years. I don’t expect the Mariners to win all the time; I do think it’s fair, however, to expect them to try.
3. I am not suggesting that Yuniesky Betancourt is a bad person or has bad character; I’ve never met the man and couldn’t say. He is, at the moment, however, very much conducting himself irresponsibly as a major league ballplayer. And while I sympathize that this may be the result of extraneous factors, the team and the fans deserve better. He began his career with a lot of promise defensively with work to do as a hitter. If he had held steady on defense, many of us would probably forgive him his transgressions at the plate. But the fact remains that he has regressed in virtually every facet of his game, especially on defense, and seems not to be concerned to address it.
4. Whatever Betancourt’s shortcomings, it will not do to try to obfuscate the topic by alleging “facts” that are demonstrably false, such as suggesting that Ken Griffey, Jr., has not worked his tail off throughout his career, or suggesting that because David Wells is tubby, he never worked hard on refining his skills as a pitcher. Comparing “work ethic” across players and positions may be unfair, but the simple fact remains that, for whatever the reasons, Betancourt seems unwilling to try to do the bare minimum necessary to impress management, his teammates, and fans that he at least takes their concerns seriously.
Don’t get me wrong: no one would be happier than I if some light would go on and YuBet began to realize the vast potential he showed four or even three years ago. In that sense, I don’t consider being sent to Tacoma a punishment, but an opportunity for him to try to turn his career around.
FWIW…
This is why people hate political correctness. I have no interest in “progressing” to a point where it’s considered insensitive to point out that a guy is lazy when he is unwilling to work hard enough to perform the job that he was hired to do, and finds nothing wrong with requiring his employer to live up to their end of the bargain while he chooses to play video games and take naps during work hours.
Yuniesky Betancourt is lazy, by every definition of the word. If you’re offended that there’s a lazy hispanic in this world, I don’t know what to tell you.
In addition to what Dave is saying, nobody has said that Betancourt is lazy BECAUSE he is Hispanic.
He’s lazy because he’s lazy, and there’s nothing even mildly racist about saying that, just because he happens to be Cuban.
Given that I’m pretty damn close to being a professional Political Correctness consultant, I’m find accusations of stereotyping to be useless and detrimental when there is so little basis for it. Questioning Cedeno’s advantage over Betancourt when all the defensive statistics support the point just devalues the use of the term.
Baseball eyes shows Betancourt isn’t getting the job done. Stats show he isn’t getting the job done. He is resisting any guidance in remedying that; he’s not doing extra work to fix that performance gap. “Lazy” is an apt term.
If Betancourt wants to actually put in a little bit of effort to live up to the abilities he was born with, great. But he needs to do that in Tacoma, and earn his way back to the major leagues by showing that he cares enough to make himself into a guy who deserves to be here. If that never happens, so be it – I’m perfectly happy never having to watch him play baseball again.
Hells. Yes. And AMEN.
Dave, there is a big difference between political correctness and pleas for civility and fairness. No one is arguing that Betancourt’s performance hasn’t sucked. No one is arguing that there should not be consequences for his performance. No one is accusing anyone of racism. If you are lumping in my remarks with other inconsequential pleas for political correctness then I have failed in communicating my concerns.
I have been and will continue to be a supporter of the writing at this web site. On this issue, we’ll just have to disagree.
Peace.
Utis,
[Hello. I am being a passive aggressive tool.
Love,
Jim H]
Or maybe he just made a really bad argument. No? I’m not capable of thinking for myself? Oh. Well, okay…I guess you’re right. I am now sad.
There is no good or bad on this issue. There are just different points of view. Which side you end up in will depend on what you value. If you all understand where I am coming from a little better then that is good. I understand the counter argument even if I don’t agree.
I have no beef with the management here. They provide the soapbox and have not censored anything I’ve written. I could not ask for more.
I’ll take credit for that last edit assuming it’ll spare Dave/DMZ some grief. You don’t get to dress up metacomplaints with on topic discussion.
Utis,
I don’t think anyone labeled anyone’s opinion “good” or “bad”; rather, it seems there is a more effective means of expressing displeasure with Yuniesky Betancourt.
His inability to maintain good physical condition and keep his body weight where it needs to be in order to be a MLB shortstop displays a lack of respect – for himself, his employer, and his co-workers – on his part. The terms “fat”, “lazy” and “stupid” might seem to be hurtful, in which case if we were all in a sensitivity training class then they would all be a big no-no.
However, the value judgment being made against Yuni to which you refer is based solely on his inability to:
a) perform his job as required
b) effort to improve his skills
c) effort to maintain his skills at their current level
d) maintain good physical condition
This is not a snap judgment based on one missed off-day BP session and a few poor decisions in the batters box in recent weeks – this has been going on for nearly two years, and four different managers and countless teammates have (as reported by dozens of journalists) tried and failed at inspiring him to do the bare minimum.
I understand the PC ideals, and it’s neat that you embrace it so dearly. But this isn’t a matter of making any kind of judgment on the type of person YuBet is outside of the baseball world. He might very well be a great buddy with whom fishing trips result in epic adventures and fantastic tales of impossibility. He might spend his off-season time teaching blind kids how to read braille. Maybe he mops the floor of the Sistine Chapel for free every Saturday in winter. Good for him if that’s the case.
But, in the world of baseball… he has become fat, and he has displayed laziness and stupidity on and off the field. Those traits have directly and adversely affected his ability to perform the duties of the job he was hired to do. He has efforted his way out of being an MLB-caliber baseball player.
It’s not really a debatable topic.
[moderation complaint]
rmac1973 I am responding only because I think you are mischaracterizing the exchange. These things stay around for a while so I don’t want to be misunderstood. So, here it is for the record.
1. Betancourt is underperforming. Fact.
2. He has not worked to improve his skills. Fact.
3. He has not listened to coaches or teammates. Fact.
4. Betancourt underperforms because he is lazy. He is a waste of time and space. Opinion. You might argue it is informed opinion but it is still an opinion. It is so heavily dependent on a cultural frame of reference that some people regard it as self evident.
5. I find statement 4 objectionable. Fact.
6. The reasons for objecting to 4 are bogus PC correctness. Opinion.
7. The reasons for objecting to 4 are valid. Opinion.
8. Some people value plain speaking. Fact.
9. Some people value civility and sensitivity. Fact.
Opinions will be heavily influenced by your culture and life experiences.
Let’s agree to disagree.
Peace
I think this topic has run its course.
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