TAMPA, Fla. _ The Yankees beat Dellin Betances in their arbitration hearing.
Then took to the offensive, with club president Randy Levine leading the charge, in blasting the pitcher's representation for taking the case to arbitration to begin with, using words like "overreaching," "ridiculous" and "half-baked."
"We only go to arbitration when we think that people on the players' side, not necessarily players, but their agents and representatives, make over the top demands," Levine said on a conference call late Saturday morning. "Demands based on very little sense of reality."
The decision came down in the Yankees favor Saturday morning, with Betances getting the $3 million the team had offered in January. Betances, an All-Star the last three years, was seeking $5 million.
"Dellin Betances is a great, great, person, Dellin Betances is a great, great elite setup man for the New York Yankees, and the New York Yankees rewarded him as such by making him, with our offer of $3 million, the highest paid first-time elite setup man in the history over baseball arbitration," Levine said. "What his agents did is make him a victim of an attempt to change a marketplace in baseball that has been well-established for 30-40 years, and I feel bad for Dellin that he was used in that way by his agents."
Betances agent, Jim Murray, could not immediately be reached for comment. Betances planned to talk with the media after Saturday's workout, his first with the club. He had been excused while awaiting Friday's hearing, which took place in St. Petersburgh.
Betances, who turns 29 March 23, leads the majors with 217 relief appearances over the last three seasons, posting a 1.93 ERA and recording 392 strikeouts in 247 innings. He has recorded
The Yankees, however, in the hearing focused on the right-hander's defensive deficiencies, primarily his trouble holding runners and difficulties fielding and, more specifically, throwing to bases. Additionally, as Levine continually pointed out, Betances hasn't been a closer (he has 22 career saves), other than post-trade deadline last season after the Yankees traded away closer Andrew Miller.
"Anyone who knows about this process would know that the history is very well established that $5 million goes to elite closers, people who pitch the ninth inning and have a lot, a lot, a lot of saves," Levine said. "Dellin didn't have that record, he never did. He's a great, elite setup man, maybe one day he'll be a great closer, we hope so, but that's like saying ... in effect like me saying, 'I'm not the president of the Yankees, I'm an astronaut.' Well, I'm not an astronaut and Dellin Betances is not a closer. At least based on statistics, not whether he could be or couldn't, but he isn't."
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