Yordano Ventura has transformed from top prospect to MLB's newest villain

A year ago at this time, when baseball fans heard the name Yordano Ventura, we thought of the fire-balling Kansas City Royals pitcher, one of the top young arms in the game, the guy they'd already started calling "Ace Ventura" in his rookie season.

Today, when baseball fans hear Ventura's name, we think of his fiery personality, one of the main troublemakers of the young 2015 MLB season, the guy they've already started calling a "thug," a "hothead" and various other not-so-endearing names.

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In the last three weeks, Ventura, 23, has joined Bryce Harper and Yasiel Puig in the ranks of baseball's villains, all of them a few steps down from baseball's villainlord, Alex Rodriguez. It's not always fair to get cast as a villain. For some players, it's the role they've been given. Others, it's the role they've assumed. In Ventura's case, it's more of the latter.

In each of his last three starts, he's been in the middle of an incident with an opposing player that caused the benches to clear. On April 12, he jawed with Mike Trout at home plate, causing Angels and Royals players to flood the field. Last Saturday, hit plunked Brett Lawrie with a pitch as part of the escalating feud between his team and the A's. And Thursday night, Ventura was front and center in the huge brawl between the Royals and White Sox.

He yelled "f*** you" at Adam Eaton after Eaton hit a comebacker, which immediately caused umpires to step in and both teams to spill onto the field. That F-word, as you can imagine, was not Fudgsicle.

A number of Royals fans have spent the last week explaining away their team's actions in their clash with the A's. The most loyal of them will make the same excuses for Ventura's three outbursts: Trout said something to him, Brett Lawrie started it, Eaton mouthed-off.

Certainly Ventura is not the only guilty person in each incident, but he is the common denominator. He's also the one who walked straight at Lawrie after hitting him with a pitch. He stared down Trout after Trout singled off him. And consider this: How many fights has Mike Trout been in? How many times has Adam Eaton incited the benches to clear? 

The Royals are supporting Ventura, all the way up to the front office, where GM Dayton Moore told the Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough on Friday that he wouldn't condemn what Ventura did against the White Sox. But Moore readily admits that Ventura needs to learn to control his temper.

And so we've reached the point where the story shifts for Yordano Ventura. Last year, he was the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the big leagues, the guy who went out and played rec-league softball after his team lost the World Series. You root for guys like that.

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This year, Ventura's a villain to the baseball-watching public. There's no denying it right now. It doesn't always have to be that way. But as Puig and Harper and A-Rod have showed us, it can be difficult, no matter how talented you are, to convince people otherwise. Unless, of course, you're Pedro Martinez.

People have been comparing Ventura to Martinez long before he was making the benches clear. They're both hard-throwing Dominicans whose electric arms made up for their small (by pitcher's standards) stature. Pedro was a villain too, a polarizing pitcher who caused problems at various points in his career.

Ultimately, Pedro ended up OK. He's a soon-to-be Hall of Famer and an in-demand broadcaster now. He had the right mixture of fierce competitor and charming showman. That's something Ventura still needs to learn. Right now, nobody's going to accuse Ventura of being charming.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz