How much did Yuni's inability to get the direction they wanted from him influence the decision to trade him.
"I don't want to talk negative about any player. It just got to point where we were really happy with what Ronny was doing out there. We're very happy with his defense. We're hoping that (offense) comes around a little bit. It was just time to move on.
We got a couple nice arms. When you have a chance to get someone's Minor League Payer of the Year I think you have to weigh everything in balance. At this moment in time, we think that was the right thing to do.
How quick did this trade come about?
We always have these discussions. You have these names that are discussed. In this particular case, probably the last 48 hours it came to a head.
I think when you say you get two arms with it, that's nice. I think it goes back to Ronny playing so good defensively right now. I think when Yuni came back here, the role would have been a little bit undefined.''
Acquiring talent is your first priority. Sometimes it's in the way of arms and other times it may be a position player. At the end of the day, everybody needs arms never have enough arm. That wasn't necessary a priority. We exchanged names that because the name we were intrigued with.
We said from day one we wanted to accumulate talent.
Character is preached with the M's, did Cortes' recent legal troubles come into consideration?
"He stubbed his toe a couple times. I had a discussion with him today and told him that's not acceptable. But everything we know about him and all the discussions we've had, and we've dug in to a reasonable deep level, is he's a good kid. He had an issue here. It's behind him. He's aware of his mistake. It's behind him and here we go.''
So it being his third organization doesn't raise a red flag?
Look who he was traded for in the past. Tyler Lundstrum is a first round pick. Sometime you have players who are desirable for other clubs. It was probably the case there and it's certainly the case here.
On Dan Cortes and Derrick Saito
"I don't want to build expectations but he's got a power curveball and a power arm. He's 6-6, 220. so it's not too back. The left-hander is not a big guy but he's real crafty. His strikeouts rate back in college he averages 14 strikeouts per nine innings So we thin he has a chance to be a big league pitchers as well.
Does talent sometimes trump minor character questions?
"Sometimes you take a step back in terms of a certain player's behavior. Then you move forward. I've made mistakes just like all of us have. You learn from them. At the end of the day, we have a good kid here who has talent. He's 22-years old and he's pitching in double-a. That's not bad.
"It they (Royals) were thinking of that (moving to AAA), then he's probably pretty close. Our guys will get a chance to look at him. When you have a player come in you want him to get his feet on the ground, have that comfort level for him. If he progress es like we hope then we'll certainly move him as well.''
The state of the left side of the infield?
"You know, it's the land of opportunity. Chris (Woodward) is an experienced big-league player He's got seven years behind him. Ronny's is getting a chance to play every day now. Langerhans has come in and contributed just about every game he has played in. You ask played to step up and you hope they do. In this case, you hope for that as well.
You always keep ear open. Always try to improve your ballclub. Sometimes you go with what you have. I don't think a point in time that I'm' not going to try not to pursue talent.
Would you like to get (Josh) Fields, Phillippe Aumont, Cortes on the same team to push each other?
"Yeah, I think every player has his own timetable. So when you look at talent, there more to it than that. One kid is 22, the other is 22, the other is 20. So some have more experience than others. It's nice to think of that concept of the three pushing each other but in the same sense talent will dictate when you make a move.
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