Agreed. It's a risk you take, because what you lose has no real value to your team anyway. I'm glad the Royals feels Yuni has value to them, but as a lazy malcontent with zero walks and power for us who turned from a plus defender into barf-in-a-garbage-can on the field, he was done here.
If what we could get from him is potentially a top-flight power reliever (with a secondary look at adding a left-handed pen arm), I'll take it. It gives me two shots to make one bullpenner, and if the guy who throws 98 works out it's an even better bonus.
BTW, the guy you're thinking of w/r/t performance is Matt Thornton.
Thornton in AAA: 8K, 6.8 BB per 9.
Thornton for the Ms: 8.7K. 6.7 BB per.
Thornton for the ChiSox: 10.1K, 3.1 BB per. The Sox crowed that they had one thing they wanted him to do that would instantly take his control ratios into positive territory. He did it for them from day one. I don't expect Cortes to be a one-tweak fix, but I think he can do fine even with herky-jerky mechanics with proper instruction and repetition.
Cortes still has hills to climb. If and when his control deserts him, how will he take it? Can he get anything like decently repeatable mechanics working for him? Can he improve his Ks AND drop his walks?
But it's doable. He's got the cannon - aiming it is the next challenge, but at least we're deploying him where we should: from the pen.
And I like his upside far more than Yuni's, even if he doesn't reach it. Cortes has already redeemed his trade worth as a closer-of-the-future, far more than what we traded him for.
~G
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