TAMPA — Dellin Betances plans to attend his arbitration hearing in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday. Until the hearing is completed, the three-time All Star reliever won’t be in camp.
According to the collective bargaining agreement, players don’t have to be in camp until Feb. 22, meaning any activity before is on a volunteer basis. It is commonplace for players to stay away from camp to avoid injury while awaiting arbitration hearings, and the reliever wasn’t on hand Tuesday as pitchers and catchers reported for spring training.
Betances has filed for $5 million and the Yankees turned in a $3 million request. Betances was renewed at $507,500 last year.
Because it’s Betances’ first trip through the process and he fully believes his filing number was fair considering what he has done the past three seasons, a negative outcome could affect Betances, who will turn 29 next month.
“If I feel that it does affect him I will talk to him. Obviously, this is part of the game that somewhat becomes public and can become frustrating for both sides,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of his eighth-inning reliever. “But you have to be able to move on. When you sign up for this game, it becomes not only a game that you love and fight to do everything you can to win but it’s also a business.
“Once he gets through his arbitration case, we are going to have to put that business behind and focus on the games. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time and sometimes there can be hard feelings, but that is something we have to deal with.’’
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