Yuniesky Betancourt Signing Puts Concerned Phillies Fan Base at Ease

Defense?! Yuni know it! Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Yuniesky Betancourt may be here to provide some depth and nothing more. Or he could be here to be your starting 2B/ss/3B for the 2013 Philadelphia Phillies.

It’s literally impossible to tell!

He could fail to make the club out of spring training, or he could split time at third with Freddy Galvis. Who knows!  With the volume of potential injuries in the Phillies’ infield, the options are limitless.

This could be the greatest [minor league] deal of Betancourt’s career, as a weak-hitting utility infielder who was cut by the Royals–the Royals–in mid-August.  In 2009, he had the lowest on base percentage (.274) of starting Major League Baseball players. Granted, he’s made huge strides since then, having the audacity to hit over .250 on occasion.

Betancourt would never, ever, even by Ruben Amaro’s fevered consciousness, counted on for his offense.  If he is out there, on the team and everything, playing just several hundred steps from Delmon Young in right field remember, then he is there to field the ball if it comes to him.

Also he is out there because someone is hurt, and/or someone was hurt so badly that they couldn’t even make it out of Clearwater.  If the competition amongst potential Phillies infielders is so weak that Betancourt appears as a viable option–and it is–then solidifying their inherited role as “third place team” would truly be a goal to strive for.

Yuniesky Betancourt.

No word yet on when that presser’s being held.