Royals Unvail New Left Side of the Infield
7/17/2009
Tonight the Kansas City Royals will unvail their new left side of their infield as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays at Kauffman Stadium. Royals starting third baseman Alex Gordon makes his return to the line up as well as new Royals shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt.
To make room for Gordon and Betancourt the Royals sent Mitch Maier to triple A Omah and designated shortstop Tony Peña for assignment. Most Royals fans should feel this as a sigh of relief as Peña was quickly becoming the fans favorite joke of the day with his .098 batting average. Peña also now must clear waivers to stay with the Royals, and many Royals fans would hope he doesn't.
The Royals plan to ease Gordon back into the line up by not playing him more than 3 games in a row at a time for at least the first week. The move allows the Royals to move Teahan back to the outfield and part time at first base as well as fill in at third when Alex isn't playing. One thing is certain though, the Royals can not afford to have either Teahan or Billy Butler's bat out of this line up and Gordon needs to play as much as he can.