Royals Fine Yuniesky Betancourt For Poor Play

No, no, not his overall play, for a literal single play.

According to the Kansas City Star , the Royals have fined Betancourt, the team's shortstop, following a dropped fly ball in Friday's loss to the Texas Rangers.

The ball was hit to the grass just past the infield, where Betancourt attempted to make a flashy one-handed catch at shoulder level. Unfortunately, he dropped it, allowing a run to score and to give Texas an early 2-0 lead.

The Royals decided that enough was enough. They fined the shortstop, but club officials are refusing to release how much the fine was worth.

Kansas City manager Trey Hillman stated that he will not force Betancourt to change his style of play and catching, but hinted that these fines may continue.

"He's been doing it like that for his whole life," Hillman said to the Star . "If you can't get comfortable with the correct technique, then understand the next part of the equation is if you drop it, you're going to make us look bad, and it's going to affect our club, and we've got to have some recourse and take some action."

Betancourt has since said that he will work on fixing his technique, but says he does not recall previously dropping a fly ball.

Betancourt did not lose any playing time following the play, and it appears that the message is that he can play however he wants, but there will be repercussions for unnecessary errors.

"I want to give guys freedom with their comfort zone," Hillman said. "As long as they continue to get the job done. If they don't get the job done, there have to be repercussions. The bottom line is you have to catch it."

This unprecedented act raises the question about whether this is the way for teams to go about disciplining players for poor play. 

Should they work to fix the styles that cause the problems, or let the players play however they want and punish them financially if that style comes back to hurt the team?

It will be interesting to see if they continue to act on this, and if any other team picks it up.