TAMPA — Not long after the Yankees learned Saturday that won their arbitration hearing with reliever Dellin Betances, team president Randy Levine lashed out at the pitcher’s agent in a conference call with reporters. Levine went on and on for 17 minutes claiming agent Jim Murray used Betances to try to change baseball’s arbitration system by filing at $5 million. Here’s the play by play of Levine’s Q &A:
Levine opening statement: “Let me say a few things: The New York Yankees, we value our players. We value them very, very highly, especially if you look at our history of the arbitration process. 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 … demands based on very little sense of reality. That’s what happened years ago (in past Yankees arbitration disputes) with Chien-Ming Wang. It happened before with Mariano Rivera when his agents overreached. And that’s what happened with Dellin Betances (on Friday). When you look at our record, we try and reach deals. Ninety-nine percent of the time we do reach deals. But this is a very suffocated organization working with a suffocated commissioner’s office looking at 30-to-40 years of precedent to know what’s reasonable and fair and what’s not.
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“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 such making him with our offer of $3M the highest-paid, first-time (eligible) elite setup man in the history of baseball arbitration. Let me repeat it again: How much we value him, our offer of $3M makes him the highest paid first-time eligible elite setup man in the history of baseball arbitration. And Dellin deserved that.
“What his agents did is make the victim of an attempt to change the 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 agent because anyone knowing about this process – anyone – you should talk to anybody who would know that the history is very well established that $5 million goes to elite closers. What do we mean by closers? People who pitch the ninth inning and have a lot, a lot, a lot of saves. 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 … the agent took him to a case in effect is like me saying I’m not the president of the Yankees, I’m an astronaut. I’m not an astronaut and Dellin Betances in not a closer … at least based on statistics. It’s not whether he could be or couldn’t, but he isn’t.
“And with all due respect, some of you (in the media), especially Bill Witz in the New York Times, got all of this attempt to change the market like there was any seriousness to it. This was an attempt (by agent Jim Murray of Excel Sports Management) to use a player and change our market where they were decades of experiences – decades of experience! – in history where people at the top of the relief market were closers, premium closers … That’s who make that kind of money.
“This was a half-baked attempt to undue all of that history, which everybody in the game and try to change the market in a radical way using Dellin Betances to try and say there’s no difference between closers and elite setup men and regular relief pitchers. And that’s really troubling to me that they would take a player of mine who is such a great young kid to do something like that. And at the end of the day, we’re very, very confident that Dellin is going to have a great year because he’s a great person. We support him 100 percent – 100 percent! – going forward and at the end of the day, we just want everyone to understand that $3 million … that was a great victory for Dellin Betances. He can now say that he was the highest-paid first-time (eligible) setup man in the history of major league baseball, and the question from you guys (in the media) should be asking is, ‘Why was he used to try to undue the market that has settled for decades and decades and decades. That’s really the question that should be asked. So with that said, I want to thank everybody on our team from the Yankees who was involved in this victory … so with that said I’d like to take some questions.”
Q: Why do you think Betances was “used”?
Levine: “Probably very simple. I heard everybody writing all kind of stuff that ‘we didn’t want to talk to Dellin, there was nothing to talk about, we were bad guys because we were talking’ … despite our history of always settling most cases. But it’s hard to talk to somebody when that person is telling you a number that has no bearings to reality. … I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. The fact of the matter is there’s a defined market for a relief pitcher. Elite closers get X amount, the top, and then it goes down. It’s principally the ninth inning and saves. Dellin’s been great, but he doesn’t have the statistics in the ninth inning or the saves. He just doesn’t have it. So at the end of the day, it’s obvious that he was not getting $5 million unless it was a fluke. You can’t blame them to take a shot in arbitration, but that was the point, and that point that was disturbing is that the Yankees have a track record in arbitration of settling with people. And here we brought a case where we paid him $3 million, the highest, again, ever for an elite setup man. And the story came out that somehow he was underpaid when the real story is this was a moonshot trying to change a well-established market. Whether Dellin knew or didn’t know, his agents tried to use him to change a well-established market. And the Yankees deserve credit for (filing at) $3 million because he deserves that based on what he’s done. That’s really what happened.”
Q: Are you concerned about this whole process or any comments that are out there publicly creating animosity in your relationship with Dellin or his representatives?
Levine: “No. To be honest, it wasn’t that contentious. I’ve been in a lot more contentious (hearings). We love Dellin. He’s great, and at the end of the day if Dellin is upset about going into a hearing … he should go talk to his representatives and say, ‘Why did you bring him in here? What was the point? I should have made a deal.’ It was obvious.”
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Q: Randy, were they any sort of talks about …
Levine: (cuts off question) “Identify who this is.”
Q: This is Billy Witz. Where there any talks …
Levine: (cuts off question) “I’m surprised. You must be very disappointed after being spoon-fed all of that nonsense. Go ahead.”
Q: Were there any talks about coming to a settlement and/or a long-time (contract)?
Levine: “That’s something between us and the Dellin and his representatives. We’ll see. Right now I have no comment on that.
Q (also from Witz): “Well doesn’t that speak to whether somebody was interested. If you’re saying that (Betances’ agents) are so unreasonable.
Levine: “When somebody files a filing number of $5 million based on absolutely zero, and I say absolutely zero precedent and credence, it’s very hard to talk to somebody. That’s what happened. Next question please.”
Q: (Another reporter) “The game is changing right now. It’s clear that the arbitration process hasn’t caught up yet to the change in the game, which is that there is greater respect now for the guys who pitch the sixth-to-eighth innings, and we’re seeing it somewhat monetarily, including by the Yankees. You did sign Andrew Miller to a $9 million-a-year contract without clearly stating that he was going to be the closer. Doesn’t that mean that at some point the arbitration process does have to reflect this and show that guys like Betances should be getting more than standard setup guys did in the past.
Levine: “No. First off, you’re comparing free agent market signings to salary arbitration. They are completely different. When you’re dealing with salary arbitration, you’re dealing with precedent, with history and the way things are set out. … All I’m saying here is the arbitration market, people who engage in this, people who know about it (and) study it with experience know exactly what’s real and what’s not. And what we’ve done to Dellin Betances that led to an arbitration is completely an unreal fantasy, and I feel bad for him.”
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Q: Did you tell Jim Murray and Dellin’s representatives how unrealistic you thought they were?
Levine: “Yeah. Many times. It led to arbitration. You never know in arbitration, fellows. But in all the cases that I have done, and I’ve done a lot of cases, this one I was sure as I could possibly be sure.”
Q: You learned today that you won this case. Why have this conference call with reporters?
Levine: “Why? Because I love Dellin Betances. I’ve taken a very strong interest in him his whole career. I was involved in drafting him and I see a lot of stuff out there about (Yankees) animosity, bad stuff and so forth. There is no bad stuff on our end. We love the kid. He’s a great Yankee and I wanted to set the record straight that the reason we went into arbitration, the reason that he lost, the reason that we’re even having these conversations … The Yankees did the right thing. We filed the number at $3 million, which shows respect, appreciation for what he did, for what his career was … one of the elite setup men in the game. That’s what I’m trying to say. We’ve done everything that should be done. And the fact that somebody filed a ridiculous number that had no chance – very little chance I should say – of winning .. and for some people, including some of you (beat writers), to believe, ‘Oh, he filed at $5 million, let’s throw reality out of the door. What does it matter? Let’s just pay him $5 million even though there’s no basis and fact for it …’ What I’m trying to say is the Yankees have always done the right thing based on our history, based on where we are.”
Q: Are you concerned about what Dellin had to hear during the hearing?
Levine: “That’s that beauty of arbitration. The player puts out (statistical) numbers and he’s worth this because of A, B, C and D, and you compare him to other players. You go through his career, and that’s it. That’s what arbitration is, so if a player doesn’t want to hear that, his representatives should tell him, ‘That’s the process. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t go through the process.'”
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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