Yankees win arbitration case against Betancces

Wow, the Yankees look like *beep* here:
1:19pm: Betances’ head agent, Jim Murray, wrote to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal about Levine’s comments. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Murray expressed anger about Levine’s decision to speak to the media about Betances’ situation.

“[W]e are not going to be bullied by the Yankees team president. His statements are reprehensible and outright false. His desire to conduct a press conference today amounts to nothing but grandstanding and trying to mislead the media,” Murray says.

“This guy was a 3-time All-Star. He is a unique pitcher that the arbitration system had never seen. He is about as unique as they come. We all knew it was going to be a landmark decision because of what this player has done.”

Betances, for his part, says the situation will make him more inclined to head elsewhere once he becomes a free agent following the 2020 season, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch tweets. “You look at it a little differently now. I think (free agency) will be a little easier when the time comes,” says Betances.

11:06am: Earlier today, it emerged that righty Dellin Betances had lost his arbitration hearing to the Yankees, meaning he will receive $3MM next season rather than the $5MM he had hoped for. Now, Yankees president Randy Levine is criticizing Betances and his representation at Excel Sports Management for what he describes as a “half-baked attempt” to “use a player to change a well-established market,” as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch writes (all Twitter links). The hitch was that the best-paid relievers are typically closers, and Betances’ experience in that role is limited. Betances’ $5MM filing number had “had no bearings in reality,” Levine says.

“It’s like me saying, I’m not the president of the Yankees, I’m an astronaut. I’m not an astronaut and Dellin Betances is not a closer,” Levine adds.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that there’s “bad blood” between Betances and the Yankees going back to last season, when the Yankees renewed Betances’ salary for the league minimum of $507K despite Betances’ strong performances to that point.

Sherman reports that Betances tried to get the Yankees to negotiate on an extension this offseason, but the Yankees didn’t go particularly far in pursuing the matter. Betances also tried to get the team to settle on a salary for this season, but the two sides disagreed so thoroughly on what Betances should be paid that they instead went to a hearing without much serious discussion.

The basis of the Yankees’ disagreement is that arbitrators generally don’t reward non-closers with big salaries, and that arbitration salaries are mostly based on precedent. Betances briefly closed for the Yankees near the end of last season but didn’t do nearly as well as he’d done in a setup role. Sherman reports that, during the arbitration hearing, the Yankees argued that Betances didn’t have the high saves totals needed to justify a $5MM salary for a first-timer through the arbitration process, and that his struggles down the stretch (he had a 4.30 ERA with 38 strikeouts, 15 walks, and 12 saves in 23 innings following the trade of Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs) were a factor in their reacquiring Chapman this winter. The Yankees in fact felt that even $3MM was too high a salary for Betances at this point but submitted that figure anyway to make it easier to win the hearing.

Over the last several seasons, MLBTR’s yearly Arbitration Trackers in fact demonstrate scant precedent for a salary of $5MM for a setup man with three-plus years of service. It’s worth noting, however, that Betances has mostly dominated throughout his career, posting a 2.16 ERA, 3.5 BB/9 and a ridiculous 14.3 K/9 in parts of five seasons. Those numbers make it difficult to find exact comparables for Betances. Heading into the offseason, MLBTR projected Betances would receive $3.4MM this offseason.
Betances understands that saves are a *beep* stat on which to be compensated, do he asks for money commensurate with his actual skill and value, and he's somehow the bad guy here? Why the hell would Levine make this public? Throwing your players under the bus is not a good look.

~I know that I know nothing.~

yeah, they do look like dicks. levine is a prick. but that's' my team right there and it's business, every team does sh!t like that from time to time.

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Yeah, I mean, every team is going to try to pay their players less, it's their job, but to publicly throw him under the bus and accuse him anything nefarious just makes them look like gaping dick holes. Betances is 100% right, the fact that he's been among the most dominant relievers in the game, but that dominance came outside the 9th inning is inherently flawed, and he was perfectly within his rights to try to alleviate that misconception; it's not his fault the arbitration process is outdated.

I mean Levine looks like an idiot. He's basically saying that Betances isn't that good because his team didn't use him in save situations, nevermind the fact that save situations aren't always the highest leverage situations, so in many cases he's been more important to the team than their actual "closer" (see Francona's use of Andrew Miller in the playoffs). I guess this moron would rather have AJ Ramos, Steve Cischek, Sam Dyson, Fernando Rodney, Jeremy Jeffress, Tony Cingrani, Tyler Thornburg, Luke Gregerson, Brandon Kintzler, Hector Rondon, KRod, David Robertson, or any of the other relief pitchers with more "saves", but much less dominant numbers pitching for him. They should probably trade him straight up for one of those guys, I mean Betsnces isn't a *beep* "closer, but those guys are.


~I know that I know nothing.~

I AGREE! Who care what inning he pitched. What is the difference between a set up man and a closer? They both have to get 3 outs. Some times the set up man is BETTER than a closer.

And saves are an overrated stat in general. I thought betances was better than champan last year, but chap closed because of his reputation. Levine made a dick move by minimizing his accomplishments simply because joe used him in the 7th and 8th inning (after the chapman trade)

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Wow, Randy Levine had better bring an awful lot to the table, or else I'd have him walking long before signing Betances to an extension.

That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!

Yeah, 29 other teams would line up to have that guy in their pen.

~I know that I know nothing.~

Yankees win Well, it had to happen at some point.

By Grabthar's Hammer...what a savings.