M’s strategies at shortstop come up short

SEATTLE – Left field was a long-time punchline for the Seattle Mariners. More than 60 different players pulled shifts there during the 11 years Ken Griffey Jr. patrolled center. One of them – Marc Newfield – believed left field to be stationed over an old Indian burial ground and thus, apparently, cursed.

And we know how so many of the jazzy young pitching arms earlier this decade were bigger hoaxes than Y2K.

But high-profile miscalculation – or M’scalculation, if you prefer – was virtually defined at the shortstop position, a notion that came to roost again Friday when the Mariners shipped Yuniesky Betancourt to Kansas City in what wasn’t so much a trade as a donation to Goodwill.

The clincher? Starting at short against the M’s on Friday night for the Texas Rangers: Omar Vizquel.

You can’t really call yourself a dyed-in-the-polyester M’s fan if you don’t still miss the amazing Little O, now a sprightly 41 … just as you can’t call yourself part of the New Hardcore if you didn’t get all hot and bothered about Yuni.

A portable history: Vizquel was peddled away in 1993 by a cheapjack owner who, having just drafted Alex Rodriguez, wasn’t willing to pay a premium to keep the position warm. That led to two lamentable years of Felix Fermin until the arrival of the purportedly pre-steroid A-Rod, who management foolishly declined to trade in 2000 when even the Mariner Moose knew he’d skedaddle in free agency. Next came Carlos Guillen, who the M’s couldn’t wait to ship to Detroit to become a .300-hitting fixture. No problemo – the club went out and signed Rich Aurilia, who passed for competent only because he played next to Scott Spezio.

Finally, the M’s unearthed Betancourt. After two promising seasons Seattle quickly rewarded him with a four-year extension for $13.75 million, which apparently confirmed to Yuni that he was Babe ever-lovin’ Ruth with the green light to swing at anything – and focus in the field only when it suited him.

By the end of last year’s Mariners meltdown, Betancourt had become the poster child for All That Ails This Franchise and one of new manager Don Wakamatsu’s teaching challenges.

Except where pitcher Felix Hernandez has responded like a true ace when Wak applied the tough love, Betancourt shrugged. His on-base percentage has plummeted to .278, worst among all American League starting shortstops.

Well, except the one who’s replacing him, Ronny Cedeno.

No one wanted to go toxic on Friday. Betancourt said he was sad to go. General manager Jack Zduriencik weighed in with a clipped “It was time to move on.” And Wakamatsu insisted that “regardless of what the perception was, we had a good relationship.”

“I don’t think this is was much about Yuni as what we’re trying to do as an organization,” he said.

Hmm. To get rid of Betancourt, the M’s had to pay about $3 million of his remaining salary, and received in return two minor league pitchers, one of whom was arrested a week ago for urinating on a fence in Fayetteville, Ark. – the town’s two-holer apparently being occupied. On the upside, Danny Cortes was the Royals’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2008, though he was helped by several minor league pitchers being on the Royals’ major league roster.

Yet in Seattle, public reaction was that the M’s had rid themselves of Typhoid Yuni. The only dissent came from the Royals clubhouse, where ex-Mariners Willie Bloomquist, Gil Meche and Jose Guillen were absolutely rapturous at acquiring former teammate who helped them average 90 losses a year between 2004 and 2008.

As for M’s management, it may have been sending a message – but what, exactly?

As recalcitrant as Betancourt is, the team with the worst run production in the A.L. is now entrusting the position to a .152 hitter whose career OBP makes Yuni look Ruthian, indeed. This would seem to indicate that Zduriencik will be a trade-deadline seller regardless of what the standings say – the smart move, but a tough signal in a clubhouse that has scrapped its way to the All-Star break still in contention.

“We’ll do whatever we can to make us win here and continue to give guys opportunities,” Wakamatsu said. “What allowed us to do this trade was the belief system that Ronny gives us a better defensive shortstop right now. There were a lot of dynamics to the trade. That’s one of them.”

The other was that the previous regime miscalculated with Yuniesky Betancourt. But that’s also a tradition.