Betancourt is useless. By most accounts, he can't field the ball, he can't throw, he can't run, he can't get on base, he can't hit for power (except for last year, kind of), he can't hit for contact, he doesn't play hard... he lacks every skill that the game of baseball requires. If he was really good at just one thing, it may be a different story. But he's simply the type of player that a contending team can't afford to carry. We know that Betancourt is awful. There's years worth of data to prove that. We don't need to go out and spend a bunch of money to replace Betancourt with a player who will likely be better. He's bad enough that we should be able to replace him for league minimum for a player who, at the very least, won't be any worse. Melvin should just trade a low-level prospect for some other team's AAA depth, or audition a minor-league free agent. As risky as it is to go with an unproven player, I think even "may not be awful" is better than "proven awful." No, I am not willing to give Betancourt a chance. Of course, if we can get a good shortstop, all the better. But even a bad shortstop has a good chance of being better than Betancourt.