Dellin Betances

Dellin Betances (/ˈdɛlɪn bəˈtænsɪs/; born March 23, 1988) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). Before joining the Mets in 2020, he had played for the New York Yankees between 2011 and 2019. Betances was named an MLB All-Star from 2014 to 2017.

Dellin Betances
Betances with the New York Mets in 2020
New York Mets – No. 68
Pitcher
Born: (1988-03-23) March 23, 1988
Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 22, 2011, for the New York Yankees
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Win–loss record21–23
Earned run average2.52
Strikeouts632
Saves36
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Early life

Betances was born in Washington Heights, Manhattan. His parents, Jaime and Maria, immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic.[1] Jaime is a boxer and drives for a car service. Betances has two older brothers and a younger sister.[2] Spanish was Betances' first language.[3] The family moved to the Lower East Side when he was ten years old.[1]

Betances attended many New York Yankees games with his family as a child. At the age of 10, Betances attended the perfect game of then-Yankees pitcher David Wells in 1998, sitting with the Bleacher Creatures. He credits his family taking him to Yankee games with his choosing baseball over basketball.[4] He played baseball in the summer in the Youth Service League.[5]

Betances attended Progress High School within the Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, New York.[6] As a freshman, Betances was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall, and could throw a fastball as fast as 85 miles per hour (137 km/h). By his junior year in 2005, Betances could throw upwards of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h).[1] In 2005, Betances was named an Aflac All-American, the first player from New York City to receive the honor.[2] He also played for the Team USA Junior National Team.[7] By his senior year in 2006, Betances was 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall.[5] SchoolSports.com rated Betances as the tenth best high school prospect in 2006.[1]

Professional career

Minor Leagues

Betances was expected to be chosen in the first round of the 2006 MLB draft.[1] However, he committed to attend Vanderbilt University on a baseball scholarship to play for the Vanderbilt Commodores and had a high signing bonus demand, which led him to fall in the draft. The Yankees selected Betances in the eighth round of the draft and gave him a $1 million signing bonus to forgo his commitment to Vanderbilt.[2][4]

Betances was rated the Yankees' third best prospect for 2007,[8] and their fifth best for 2009, according to Baseball America.[9] He spent 2007 with the Staten Island Yankees of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League and 2008 with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League. In 2009, he pitched for the Tampa Yankees of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League. He struggled with Tampa, as he pitched to a 2–5 win–loss record with a 5.48 earned run average (ERA) in 11 games started, before suffering an elbow injury in June.[10] Betances had surgery late in the 2009 season, which was erroneously reported as Tommy John surgery,[11] but was instead a ligament reinforcement procedure.[12]

Betances began the 2010 season with Tampa,[10] and received a midseason promotion to the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League. Following the 2010 season, Betances was added to the Yankees' 40 man roster.[13] He began the 2011 season with Trenton, and was promoted to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the Class AAA International League on August 13.[14]

2011-2013

On September 8, 2011, Betances was promoted to the majors for the first time.[15] Betances had a pitching session in the street in front of his Teaneck, New Jersey home with his brother before joining up with the Yankees in Anaheim.[16] Betances and fellow prospect Andrew Brackman made their MLB debuts on September 22, 2011.[17] Betances made only two appearances for the Yankees.[18]

Betances spent the 2012 season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. On May 10, 2013, amid continued struggles with command, the Yankees announced that they would shift Betances to the bullpen.[19] He was optioned back to Triple-A on May 24, 2013 after Iván Nova was activated from the disabled list.[20] After pitching to a 1.46 ERA with 63 strikeouts in ​49 1⁄3 innings as a relief pitcher with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the Yankees recalled Betances on August 11.[21]

Betances was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on August 15[22] and brought back up to the majors on September 1, 2013 when rosters were expanded.[23]

2014
Betances in 2014

Betances made the Yankees' Opening Day roster in 2014.[24] He was elected to his first All Star Game in 2014, becoming the first Yankees rookie pitcher—along with teammate Masahiro Tanaka—to earn an All-Star Game nod since Spec Shea in 1947.[25]

On September 17, 2014, Betances struck out Kevin Kiermaier in the eighth inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays to notch his 131st strikeout, surpassing Mariano Rivera's Yankees team record for strikeouts by a relief pitcher, set in 1996.[26] Betances did so pitching 20 innings fewer than Rivera.[27]

Despite the physical height listed above for him in high school, Betances was listed on the Yankees' 2014 roster as being 6-foot-8,[28] which is why he chose his uniform number of 68. In 2014, Betances made 70 appearances out of the bullpen with a 5–0 record, a 1.40 ERA, and his 135 strikeouts led the majors amongst all relief pitchers. Betances finished in 3rd place in voting for the American League Rookie of the Year Award, behind Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker and White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu.[29]

2015
Betances in 2015

Before the 2015 season, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced that Betances and Andrew Miller would split the closing job to begin the season.[30] Although he gave up no earned runs in April,[31] his first save opportunity came only on May 2, when he struck out all four batters he faced, to earn his first save of the season.[32] He was elected to his second All-Star game. On August 19, he struck out his 100th batter of the season, making it two seasons in a row in which he achieved that feat. He became the first Yankees reliever in franchise history to reach the 100-strikeout club in back-to-back seasons, needing only 64 innings to do it this year.[33] He finished 15th in the 2015 AL Cy Young voting.[34]

2016
Betances while in the closer role in September 2016

Before the 2016 season began, the Yankees acquired closer Aroldis Chapman. The triumvirate of Betances, Chapman, and Miller became known by fans as "No Runs–D.M.C., owing to the relievers' dominance of opposing hitters.[35] Betances was named to his third straight MLB All-Star Game. He became the Yankees closer after the Yankees traded Chapman to the Chicago Cubs, and Miller to the Cleveland Indians, in late July.[35] For the third straight season, Betances struck out 100 batters. Overall in 2016, Betances made 73 appearances with 126 strikeouts, a 3−6 record, a 3.08 ERA, and 12 saves.

2017

On May 14, 2017, Betances became the Yankees' closer in place of an injured Chapman, who had returned to the Yankees at the beginning of the season.[36] On August 2, 2017, Betances pitched an immaculate inning against the Detroit Tigers, striking out the side in the eighth on the minimum nine pitches. It was the sixth immaculate inning recorded in Yankees history according to Baseball Almanac, and the first by a Yankee pitcher since Brandon McCarthy accomplished the feat on September 17, 2014.[37] On August 24, Betances was ejected for the first time in his Major League career after hitting James McCann with a pitch. This followed after Miguel Cabrera and Austin Romine were ejected for triggering a bench-clearing brawl.[38]

2018

With Betances' struggles with command in 2017 there was speculation that the Yankees would move him. However, Betances’ command returned to his career norms and he set a career high in strikeout rate. He was not selected for the All-Star Game, breaking a streak of four straight appearances.[39] On September 1, 2018, Betances will go on to reach a milestone that no other reliever in the MLB has accomplished. He struck out his 100th batter of the season making him the only reliever in the MLB to strike out 100 batters for five consecutive seasons.[40]

2019

On March 19, 2019, it was announced by the team that Betances would start the season on the injured list due to discomfort in his shoulder.[41] He was transferred to the 60-day injured list, and was revealed that he was diagnosed with a bone spur behind his right shoulder, putting his chances of playing in 2019 in jeopardy. He made his 2019 season debut on September 15 against the Toronto Blue Jays, where he pitched ​2⁄3 innings, but tore his achilles tendon during the appearance, ending his season.[42]

New York Mets

On December 24, 2019, Betances signed a one-year deal with the New York Mets.[43]

Pitching style

In 2013, Betances was tracked by the PITCHf/x system as having thrown a four-seam fastball averaging 96 miles per hour (154 km/h), a slurve averaging 82 miles per hour (132 km/h), and a changeup averaging 89 miles per hour (143 km/h).[44] He is known for his high strikeout rate.

Personal life

With the money Betances received in his signing bonus, he purchased a house for his parents in Teaneck, New Jersey.[4] Betances has been married to Janisa Betances since 2018.[45] They had a son in February 2019.[46]

References
  1. "SI.com – More Sports – "Baby Unit" Betances draws attention on the mound – Monday June 5, 2006 8:46PM". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. June 5, 2006. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  2. Kernan, Kevin (November 8, 2008). "Betances On Fast Track To The Majors". New York Post. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  3. Hatch, Ryan (April 30, 2015). "When Yankees' Michael Pineda needs a (language) save, he calls on buddy Dellin Betances". NJ.com. NJ Advance Media. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  4. Marchand, Andrew (May 17, 1998). "Spring Training 2011: New York Yankees prospect Dellin Betances was in stands for David Wells' perfect game – ESPN New York". ESPN. Sports.espn.go.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  5. Weinreb, Michael (June 6, 2006). "Towering Brooklyn Prospect Has Got Game, but It's Baseball". Nytimes.com. Brooklyn (NYC): The New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  6. "New York Yankees pitcher Dellin Betances goes down memory lane - Yankees Magazine". youtube.com. YES Network. May 30, 2014. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  7. "USA Baseball Releases 2005 National And Junior Team Sets". usctrojans.com. Durham, North Carolina: USC Trojans. December 31, 2005. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
  8. New York Yankees Top 10 Prospects, 2007, Baseball America. Published November 8, 2006.
  9. New York Yankees Top 10 Prospects, 2009, Baseball America. Published November 10, 2008.
  10. "Farm report: Dellin Betances". Newsday. June 24, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  11. "Betances out after Tommy John surgery". Thunderbaseball.wordpress.com. August 30, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  12. "Twitter / Tyler Kepner: To clarify on Yanks prospe". Twitter.com. September 1, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
  13. "Yankees add three to 40-man roster | The Lohud Yankees Blog". Yankees.lhblogs.com. November 19, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  14. Nalbone, John (August 15, 2011). "Top New York Yankees pitching prospect Dellin Betances promoted to Triple-A Scranton W-B". NJ.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  15. Hale, Mark (September 9, 2011). "Yankees' Swisher says he's hurting". New York Post. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  16. Craig, Marc. "Teaneck resident Dellin Betances is thrilled to be called up by Yankees", The Star-Ledger, September 10, 2011. Accessed September 11, 2011.
  17. McCarron, Anthony (September 23, 2011). "Yankees' Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman debut News". Daily News (New York). Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  18. "Yankees promote righty Dellin Betances, option David Adams". MLB.com. August 11, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  19. Sherman, Joel (May 10, 2013). "Yankees move once top prospect Betances to Triple-A bullpen". New York Post. Archived from the original on August 6, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  20. https://yanksgoyard.com/2014/04/19/yankees-set-recall-two-pitchers-bullpen/
  21. "Yankees add former top prospect Dellin Betances to bullpen". Hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. August 11, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  22. "Yankees add Huff, option Betances". YES Network. August 15, 2013.
  23. "Yanks bolster 'pen with trio of callups, one more on way". MLB.com. September 1, 2013.
  24. "New York Yankeees Dellin Betances a bright spot in Opening Day loss - Yankees Blog- ESPN". Espn.go.com. April 1, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  25. New York Yankees [@Yankees] (July 7, 2014). "Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances are the first rookie hurlers to earn an #ASG nod for the #Yankees since RHP Spec Shea in 1947" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. Waldstein, David (September 17, 2014). "Somber Note for Yankees After Victory Ends Trip". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  27. Marchand, Andrew (September 17, 2014). "Dellin Betances supplants Mo Rivera". ESPN.
  28. "40-Man Roster /yankees.com Team". newyork.yankees.mlb.com. MLB Advanced Media, LP. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  29. "2014 American League Rookie of the Year Award - BR Bullpen". www.baseball-reference.com. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  30. "Yankees go from greatest closer of all time to none at all". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  31. "Dellin Betances 2016 Game Log". Yahoo Sports. Yahoo Sports - NBC Sports Network, Stats LLC. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  32. "Yankees' Dellin Betances 'untouchable,' strikes out all 4 batters Saturday for 1st save". nj.com. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
  33. "Dellin Betances is a strikeout machine: Records his 100th (and 101st) strikeout in only 64 innings". mlb.com. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  34. "2015 American League Cy Young Award - BR Bullpen". www.baseball-reference.com. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  35. Rivera, Marly (October 26, 2016). "From the Bronx to the Fall Classic, Chapman and Miller take different paths to postseason success". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  36. "Yankees finalize 5-year deal with Chapman". MLB.com. December 15, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  37. "Zimmermann leads Tigers to soggy 2-0 win over Yankees". CBSsports.com. August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  38. "Dellin Betances beans Tigers batter in scary brawl escalation". NY Post. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  39. "The Redemption of Dellin Betances [2018 Season Review] - River Avenue Blues". Riveraveblues.com. October 16, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  40. "Yankees' Betances becomes first reliever with 100 K's in five straight seasons". SNY. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  41. Hoch, Bryan (March 19, 2019). "Dellin Betances to go on injured list". MLB.com. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  42. Joyce, Greg (September 17, 2019). "Dellin Betances' season is over after another major Yankees injury". Nypost.com. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  43. "Betances signs 1-year deal with Mets". December 24, 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  44. "Player Card: Dellin Betances". Brooks Baseball. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  45. King, George A. (June 11, 2014). "Betances leaned on family during career-threatening slump". Nypost.com. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  46. "NY Yankees spring training: Dellin Betances late, wife gives birth". Northjersey.com. February 14, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
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