After a truly miserable start increased his ERA to 7.76 in 53.1 innings, Jonathan Sanchez was designated for assignment this afternoon. The move opens a spot on the active and 40 man rosters.

In his place, the Royals called up Ryan Verdugo from Omaha to start Tuesday night’s game after the scheduled starter, Everett Teaford, had to fill in after Sanchez’s 1.1 inning outing on Monday.

Verdugo had a 3.58 ERA in 88 innings for Omaha and had been called up earlier this season, but didn’t make an appearance in a game before being sent back to Triple A. Poetically, Verdugo was the other part of the trade that sent Sanchez to Kansas City for Melky Cabrera last November. You can hear him talk about joining the Royals on the Royalman Report shortly after the trade.

The Royals also optioned outfielder Jason Bourgeois to Omaha. With Lorenzo Cain‘s return, Bourgeois was a redundant player. Cain has the speed and right-handed bat that Bourgeois had, and Jarrod Dyson is faster than both of them for late-inning pinch-running purposes. Vin Mazzaro was brought back up with the move. He had a 5.70 ERA in 30 innings. He’s been hit or miss as a starter with two starts of six scoreless innings, but three starts where he’s given up more than a run per inning.

The big move, though, is Sanchez’s designation for assignment. It’s a sign that the Royals knew they had to make the change – too often they’ll wait through while a pitcher tries to work things out, when it’s clearly not going to change anything. Kyle Davies comes to mind. The Royals have ten days to add Sanchez back to the roster, trade him or, if he clears waivers, assign him to the minors or release him outright. Unless they can find a trade partner willing to take on his remaining salary, the Royals will be on the hook for his full $5.6 million contract for 2012, minus the prorated minimum (if another team adds him after release). If he’s sent to the minors, he’ll still make the same amount.

So long, Humberto. (Photo Credit: Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE)

The Royals calmed some angry voices today by announcing that they have designated catcher Humberto Quintero for assignment. Yes, that .232/.257/.341 line couldn’t save him, and his defense was, well, not all it was cracked up to be, to put it lightly. With “Savior” Salvador Perez back in Royal blue, the team was comfortable letting one of its three catchers go. As Brayan Pena is a team staple at this point, Quintero exited stage right.

So, we all got what we wanted and hoped for, and now the team has an opening, to be filled by outfielder Jason Bourgeois. Bourgeois spent some time in Kansas City earlier in the year and brings in a .294/.323/.357 line from his MLB time last season and a .214/.267/.286 line from 15 plate appearances with the Royals earlier this year. While at Omaha, Bourgeois hit .205/.262/.269 in 168 plate appearances. It’s not as if he’s a home run king or likely to help much beyond what the Royals already have in the lineup, but he’s a warm body that can fill space.

On the other side of the ball, the Royals also optioned 31-year old left-handed pitcher Francisley Bueno to Omaha in exchange for lefty Everett Teaford, who will see his second stint in Kansas City this year as the pitching merry-go-round continues to whirl. Bueno only pitched two innings in his time as a Royal, allowing one run and three hits. Earlier in the season, Teaford threw 11 innings, allowed seven runs and two home runs, walked seven, and struck out four. However, he blazed through lineups in Omaha, pitching 24 innings and allowing four total runs with eight walks and 25 strikeouts. It seems like it’s time for Teaford to return to Kansas City, as AAA batters are offering little challenge.

Basically, the Royals made two logical moves on one day. Quintero wasn’t helping anything and the team doesn’t need three catchers on its 25-man roster. It’s always good to have five outfielders if necessary, even if Bourgeois doesn’t add much to the team.

Still, that raises an interesting question. If Bourgeois is in Kansas City, why couldn’t Wil Myers be there instead? Neither Jarrod Dyson nor Mitch Maier pose much of a threat to taking his playing time, but it’s possible the Royals are waiting for a corner outfield spot to open. Nonetheless, this could be the precursor to a change that sees Myers wearing Royal blue. Because he’s not currently on the 40-man roster, a player would have to be removed, and that could well be Quintero. Once Quintero is off the roster, there will be a hole in the 40-man and the Royals don’t have to worry about removing another player they might actually want to keep. Enter Wil Myers.

Keep an eye on the announcements in the near future. We may see Myers in Kansas City before we know it.

In a move that wasn’t well-received then and still doesn’t look like a good trade, the Royals brought in Humberto Quintero and Jason Bourgeois from the Astros for left-handed pitcher Kevin Chapman, a 2010 fourth round pick, and a player to be named later. That player was named as outfielder D’Andre Toney this afternoon.

At the time, the PTBNL was noted as a big key to the deal.

Part of the rules of baseball transactions are that a player who was drafted last June can’t be traded right away, but has to be added later as the PTBNL.  That’s just one of the quirks of the system.

The fear was that some big bonus prospect might be involved – someone like Jack Lopez, Kyle Smith or Bryan Brickhouse.

In that sense, Toney – a 14th rounder – isn’t a huge loss for the organization in a vacuum. He rocked the Arizona Rookie League to the tune of a 1.018 OPS with 22 extra base hits in 43 games. He’s got talent and tools, but not everyone thinks he’s much of an impact guy. At 5’10″  and 170 pounds, he might not add much power and he’s only played at the rookie level.

While neither Chapman nor Toney will break he Royals organization, their loss wasn’t in a vacuum – it was for two other players, neither of whom have done all that much. Quintero has had some doubles and has kept the catcher spot warm while Salvador Perez recovers from knee surgery, but that’s really it. Bourgeois is struggling at Triple A and was a career minor leaguer before last year anyway. Many feel that the Royals could have had either or both of Quintero and Bourgeois off the waiver wire at the end of spring training (and might not have been worth the time even then). Instead, they traded two prospects with some level of room to develop for two players who were borderline acquisitions. As Rany Jazayerli said today “a bad trade got worse”.Hopefully, Dayton Moore doesn’t get in the habit of making those sorts of transactions going forward.

I was actually sitting in the stands in Surprise on the day when Joakim Soria blew out his elbow.  I didn’t know for sure what was happening before the trainer went to the mound, but after watching him pitch to a couple batters I tweeted to @Ethan_Bryan,  “I can see Soria’s mojo slipping away before my eyes.”

Royals fans are looking forward to having Salvador Perez behind home plate again. (Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)

One of the darkest days of this young year actually occurred before the season began.  Last March 13 during Spring Training, Salvador Perez got his cleats stuck in the dirt and twisted his knee while warming up starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez.  An MRI revealed Perez had torn his lateral meniscus which required surgery to repair.  It is likely he’ll be out of the lineup until sometime around the All-Star game break.

You may also remember that prior to Salvador Perez’s stint on the DL, Manny Pina suffered a similar injury that has prevented him from getting any playing time this year.  This left the Royals with Brayan Pena as the only healthy major league caliber (stretching the definition of “ML caliber” just a little) catcher in their system.

We heard rumors that the Royals considered several temporary options to fill Salvador’s position, including Ivan Rodriguez who decided to retire last week, but settled on a trade with Houston that has Astros fans feeling pretty good and Royals fans a little uneasy.

To obtain catcher Humberto Quintero, and backup outfielder Jason Bourgeois from Houston (yes, the same Jason Bourgeois that was recently demoted in favor of “one-tool” Jarrod Dyson), the Royals packaged Minor League pitcher Kevin Chapman and the dreaded “player to be named later.”  (PTBNL)  On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a terrible deal for either team, except for the unknown piece of the agreement.  The Astro’s gave up two guys who weren’t going to make their team, in exchange for a decent minor league pitcher from the Royals with potential to eventually become a respectable reliever, plus the ominous PBTNL.

Even the specter of the PBTNL wouldn’t be too worrisome, except for this comment which was Tweeted by Alyson Footer, MLB’s beat reporter and Sr. Director of Social Media for the Astro’s – “I’m getting impression that Chapman is projected to be 7th/8th inn reliever and that the ptbnl is a good one, not just throw-in.”

Humberto Quintero is filling in for Salvador Perez and may become his permanent backup. (Credit: David Richard-US PRESSWIRE)

And then during the announcement of the trade, Jeff Luhnow, General Manager of the Astros, stated that the player to be named later would be the key component of the trade.

What are Royals fans supposed to think about this?  While our farm system may still be loaded with talent even after the promotions of Hosmer, Moustakas, Perez, Duffy, and Cain; few of us believe that we have extra pieces to simply give away in exchange for a temporary player that could be virtually useless in a few weeks – unless he becomes Perez’s permanent backup.  (Cue the ominous movie background music.)

Because Quintero (or “Q” as many call him) has played part-time in the National League, few of us knew much about him upon his arrival in KC.  Dayton Moore told us “Humberto Quintero is a guy we like as a solid catch-and-throw guy and has a lot of experience at the Major League level and gives us the depth that we need at this point.”  You remember DM calling Q a “solid catch-and-throw guy,” right?  So what did you expect when you heard this?  Did you expect the 3^rd most stolen bases allowed? Did you also expect him to be among the leaders in passed balls?  I doubt it.  Considering Q is only a part-time player, these results are not encouraging.

Quintero is batting a semi-respectable .283/.366/.429 (before Tuesday’s game), with zero HR’s, but he has never hit higher than .250 over the past 9 seasons (except 2006 when he only played in 11 games) so I’m certain we can expect to see his numbers regress dramatically soon.  Brayan Pena is hitting just as well as Q right now in nearly every category and no doubt will continue to produce offensively at a higher level than Humberto over the remainder of the season.

Brayan Pena rides the bench most nights while Humberto Quintero starts (Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

I haven’t been a fan of Pena’s defense ever since he failed to block home plate at least twice last year on critical plays, but stats suggest his defense has been just as good as Quintero’s so far this year.  Quintero’s WAR is 0.2, Pena’s is 0.3.   Pena earns $875,000 and Quintero earns $1M.  But more importantly, Quintero cost us a PTBNL.  (I know, I’m harping on the PTBNL thing, but it bothers me so I can’t help it.)

I just don’t understand why we needed Quintero?  Couldn’t we have just picked up almost any journeyman free agent catcher off the street to backup Pena while waiting for Salvador Perez to recover, rather than trade away an unknown PTBNL?

Maybe I’m worried over nothing, but what if the PTBNL is based on playing time?  Quintero is getting the majority of the starts this year (for reasons unknown) and it’s possible that the more games he plays, or more plate appearances he receives will result in us forfeiting a higher caliber prospect.  Why wouldn’t the Royals have announced the terms of the PTBNL?  I’ve always said – if someone purposefully won’t tell you something, it’s because they don’t want you to know.  And why don’t the Royals want us to know?  My guess is that if it was something we’d be happy to hear, they’d tell us.

In my opinion, the Royals didn’t make a good move here.  We gave up prospects to get Quintero which tells me they projected him to be Perez’s permanent backup.  It tells me they believed Quintero is a stronger player than Pena.  It also tells me that once again, they don’t always know what they’re doing.

Alex Gordon by the numbers gives you the best option as a leadoff hitter. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

My idea for a lineup is to have one that you use every single day, with the exception that it be tweaked for day games. This hasn’t been the case at all through 19 games I’ve long felt guys will get comfortable if they can get into a routine.

So far this season Alex Gordon, Jason Bourgeois, Jarrod Dyson, Yuniesky Betancourt and Chris Getz have all batted leadoff for the Royals. I won’t accept that if healthy Lorenzo Cain would have batted leadoff because the highest he’d batted had been second which only happened on opening day.

Gordon has shown flashes of coming out of his early season slump but hasn’t yet found a consistent home this season in the lineup. He’s batted leadoff opening week, moved down to the fifth spot for a couple days then he’s moved up to number two. Ideally Gordon might be best in the fifth spot but over the last year he’s been good at the top of the lineup on a team that lacks that guy.

In 89-games during the 2011 season he hit .305, 383 OBP, .916 OPS in 422 plate appearances. In addition he hit 18 homeruns, was 10-of-16 stealing bases, 56 RBI’s with 197 total bases. Not what the typical leadoff does but it helped everyone else out in the lineup.

Dyson tonight in Minnesota is getting another chance to leadoff after being recalled from Omaha this afternoon with Bourgeois being sent down. Getz got the chance in Cleveland and we were told he be “the” guy.

Prior to the series opener in the Twin Cities Ned has used 15 lineups in 19 games, last season Yost had 87 and to up the numbers to include interleague play it was 89. The fifth spot has been held by Gordon or Jeff Francoeur, let me say I like Franchy in the clubhouse and defensively but the guy needs a break from batting fifth or a day off.

Francoeur is hitting .227, no homeruns, three RBIs while scoring just six-runs, hardly befitting of battling fifth in the lineup. Move him down get his groove back then put him back if that’s where you want him Ned.

Mike Moustakas occupying the sixth spot (here is your guy who should be promoted to fifth batting .303, 2-homeruns, 8-runs scored and nine RBIs). With the numbers I just listed here is your fifth spot batter which at this point makes the lineup better. At the end of the day if you gave KC fans a 3-4-5 of Billy Butler, Eric Hosmer and Moustakas you’d have a grateful fan base.

Having the same lineup day in and day out helps players I firmly believe because they are creatures of habit. Telling a baseball player they will be in the same spot daily will put them at ease which usually produces better results. Now if after a period of say one-two weeks players aren’t producing then changes need to be made.

Mike Moustakas has produced the numbers that be well served in the fifth spot of the lineup. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-US PRESSWIRE

I concede the importance of righty/lefty match-ups plus prolonged slumps but changing lineups just for the rational of it didn’t work the day before or consecutive days doesn’t work for me. Pick a lineup let it go and then makes changes accordingly is all many of us ask.

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Dyson earned the promotion by posting surprisingly stellar offensive numbers at Omaha. Dyson has put up a .333/.373/.476 line in 63 at-bats. The .476 slugging percentage has been the biggest shock, as Dyson has shown a modicum of power in hitting three doubles and three triples against Class AAA pitching. For comparison, Dyson’s .849 OPS thus far is 136 points better than his full-season line in Omaha during the 2011 season.

Jaon Bourgeois's defining moment in a KC uniform may have been this April 22 pickoff against the Blue Jays. Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

Bourgeois, for his part, has essentially been a non-factor since being traded in Spring Training from the Houston Astros in the Humberto Quintero-Kevin Chapman deal.  His defining moment, in fact, may have been a low-light. In the middle of the club’s crippling 12 game losing streak, Bourgeois was picked off of first base in a close game with the Toronto Blue Jays on April 22. It was the last time Bourgeois appeared in a game for the Royals. With Dyson raking in Omaha, the move to swap the two outfielders was a no-brainer.

Bourgeios’ inclusion in the Quintero deal was always questionable, especially since Lorenzo Cain was healthy at the time and Mitch Maier was/is firmly entrenched as the club’s fourth outfielder.

Dyson, however, is slightly more intriguing both because of the increased power he’s flashed at Omaha this season as well as the fact that he experienced success at the beginning of 2011 while manning that “super-sub” for the Royals.

Dyson will be starting in center field and leading off in tonight’s game, and it will be interesting to see how he seizes his latest opportunity with the big club.

From my perspective, though, it will be difficult for Dyson to fall short of Bourgeois’ high water mark for the Royals. And with any luck, Dyson can show a little bit of pop and improve the base-running for a squad that has only recorded 11 stolen bases in 19 attempts.

In short, there is little to lose by calling up Dyson, but there is a potential gain. It’s a good decision, especially considering the recent news that starting center fielder Cain has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from a pulled groin.

Let’s see what Dyson can do.

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Lorenzo Cain won't make these plays for a little while. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

On Tuesday night, Lorenzo Cain made a long, running catch in centerfield to rob Daric Barton of at least a double. After the play, though, he came away favoring his leg and played one more inning but gave way to Mitch Maier as a pinch hitter.

The Royals said Cain strained his groin and he sat out Wednesday’s game. The team said Cain’s day off was planned anyway and not to worry. Today they placed him on the disabled list retroactive to yesterday and recalled Jarrod Dyson from Omaha. The move prevents him from re-aggravating the injury and missing further time.

Cain had two hits in fifteen at bats in the early season but his defense had an impact, as his speed put him in range of many balls that Melky Cabrera likely wouldn’t have caught up to last year. Dyson brings similar speed, as does Jason Bourgeois, though neither have the arm that Cain does (which is about average). Maier has a stronger arm but not quite the speed.

Dyson was 12-33 in Omaha and was successful in all six stolen base attempts.

Ned Yost hinted that Dyson will play the majority of the time in center while Cain is out. My vote would have went to Mitch Maier, who’s a more well-rounded player and has filled in as a regular when injuries have hit in the past. Defensively, the Royals can’t miss with any of the three candidates. Dyson still has to prove he can hit at the big league level. If he gets most of the time in center over the next two weeks, he’ll have his chance to show one  way or the other.

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With Salvador Perez and Manny Pina going down with injuries during spring training general manager Dayton Moore made a trade to bring in a catcher on Tuesday. Kansas City acquired catcher Humberto Quintero and outfielder Jason Bourgeois for minor league pitcher Kevin Chapman plus a player to be named later.

Humberto Quintero and Jason Bourgeois on Tuesday. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE

 Quintero, 32, spent his time in Houston primarily served as a back-up, last season he appeared in 79 games hitting two homeruns and drove in 25. During his career which started with San Diego and the last seven with the Astros his numbers are in 379 games, 15 homers and 94 RBIs.

Bourgeois, 30, was drafted in 2000 by the Texas Rangers played with the White Sox in 2008, 2009 in Milwaukee before spending the last two with Houston. Last year he played in 93 games hitting .293 with six stolen bases. During his four year MLB career his numbers in 192 games played he has a batting average of .262, two homeruns and 22 RBIs. During his 12-year minor league career he’s swiped 256 bases.

Kansas City send minor league pitcher Chapman, 24, spent 2011 in Wilmington and Northwest Arkansas by the end of the season. The Royals drafted him in 2010 out of the University of Florida. KC moved Perez and Pina to the 60-day DL to get both new players on the 40-man roster.

What are your thoughts on this trade that was made today to pick up another catcher plus an outfielder?

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