TAMPA — Welcome to the first real day of Yankees spring training … the day in which most of their full squad will practice together for the first time.
Pitchers and catchers have been in camp for almost a week, and now the infielders and outfielders will join them (although many have been in town for at least a few days hitting across the highway from Steinbrenner Field at the club’s minor-league complex).
Dellin Betances upset after arbitration hearing loss
Saturday was a wild day for the Yankees, one in which most reporters paid little or no attention to what was happening on the practice field … such as Aroldis Chapman throwing a bullpen to Gary Sanchez and CC Sabathia throwing a bullpen to Kyle Higashioka.
This day mostly was about reliever Dellin Betances’ salary arbitration hearing, which was held Friday in St. Petersburg and ended up becoming a Yankees victory on Saturday.
The craziness began about 90 minutes or so after an arbitrator’s decision was announced: Betances will get a $3 million salary for 2017 instead of his filing number of $5 million.
Once the Yankees’ morning clubhouse availability ended at 11 a.m., reporters on hand headed up to the press box and then into a media relations office for a conference call with team president Randy Levine.
And then … wow! The Yankees won the case, but Levine felt the need to publicly blast Betances’ agent Jim Murray for 17 minutes.
Why? The club felt that the $5 million filing number was outrageously out of whack from a strict arbitration salary structure that has been in place for decades. Levine wanted a forum to send a message that the Yankees feel that they were more than fair giving Betances $3 million.
Yankees beat reporters react to Dellin Betances drama
We typed up Levine’s entire Q & A for a post.
Anyway, Betances wound up talking in a conference room a little later, and he said that he had planned to avoid giving negative comments until getting word that Levine had trashed his agent.
Obviously upset, Betances retaliated for 15 minutes. He was mad that his agent was attacked and angrier over all the “bad things” about his game that the Yankees brought up during the hearing. He also says that he was willing to negotiate a settlement around the $4 million halfway mark and the Yankees wouldn’t budge.
Betances is bitter to the point that he said that since management clearly views him as nothing more than a good setup man, it’s within his right now to tell manager Joe Girardi to pitch him only in the eighth inning.
Don’t read much into this threat. Betances may not forgive and forget for a long time, but he’s unlikely to do anything to cost his team games … outside of perhaps wanting more rest from now on to assure he’ll make it to free agency in three years healthy.
Later in the day, Murray fired back at Levine in a statement given to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:
“With regards to Dellin, it was very ironic to hear the Yankees’ president express his love and affection when he spent the only portion of the hearing to which he contributed to calling this player by the wrong first name. It is Dellin, for the record. He then proceeded to blame Dellin for the Yankees’ declining ticket sales and their lack of playoff history while trying to bully the panel, saying something to the effect that the sky will fall if they rule for the player.”
What a mess!
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There were other happenings in Yankee land … such as new slugging first baseman Chris Carter making his first clubhouse appearance a day after his one-year, $3.5 million contract became official.
Carter says that he hasn’t been told what kind of role the Yankees have planned for him. He hit 41 homers last season, but with a .222 average and 206 strikeouts, so it’s likely he’ll start out platooning at first base with fellow slugger Greg Bird, whom the club is high on.
Every player in Yankees’ camp is expected to be on hand for Sunday’s first full-squad workout except for center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who will be a day or two late because his wife was scheduled to give birth on Friday.
In addition to Carter, left fielder Brett Gardner, outfielder Aaron Hicks and third baseman Chase Headley made their first clubhouse appearances of the spring on Saturday morning.
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Rookie first baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin hobbled around the Yankees clubhouse with crutches and his left foot in a walking boot a day after an MRI revealed a small break in the navicular bone on his left foot.
Austin suffered the break when fouling a pitch of his foot early in the week, but he didn’t realize how serious his injury was until he had an MRI on Friday. In fact, he hit at the minor-league complex all week until Friday.
“Running was the problem,” Austin said. “I was kind of hiding it. I was running on my toes. We’ve been icing it every day until it kept blowing up more and more, and here we are.”
Austin, who had been in the running for the starting first base job, is expected to miss six weeks.
“Two days before this starts and I’m being told I have a break,” he said. “Cut me a break one time. You know what I mean? It sucks.”
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A line of thunderstorms moved over the fields shortening the Yankees’ practice sessions at Steinbrenner Field on Feb. 18, 2016. (Reinhold Matay | USA TODAY Sports)
Saturday’s spring training practice was cut a bit short due to a heavy afternoon shower in Tampa that put a damper on what had been a beautiful 76-degree spring day.
No more rain is in the forecast for the Tampa area over the next week and temperatures are expected to climb to 80-to-85 degrees each day.
The rain on Saturday stopped fairly quickly, but not until the Yankees called it a day.
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Here are 5 other Yankees posts on NJ.com worth reading:
— Clint Frazier outlines spring, regular season missions
— 9 burning questions as position players report
— Goose Gossage rant: Comparisons Mo Rivera ‘insulting’
— Tyler Austin, Mason Williams hurt: What it means
— Pineda: My friend Familia is great guy who made mistake
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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