TAMPA — The Yankees attacked three-time All-Star Dellin Betances in an arbitration hearing, then went off on his agent after winning their case.
All of this was too much for the 6-foot-8 right-hander to continue his usual behavior of being a gentle giant.
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Betances clearly sounded hurt, angry and very bitter Saturday morning after getting word that he’d lost his arbitration hearing and thus will earn a $3 million in 2017 instead of $5 million.
The $2 million loss isn’t what Betances is mad about.
Hearing management bash him during Friday’s four-hour hearing in St. Petersburg was very bothersome, but he planned on keeping a closed public lip on his feelings until hearing his agent had been verbally torched by Yankees president Randy Levine in a conference call with beat writers Saturday.
“Even though I disagree with the arbitrator’s decision, I was planning on putting everything behind me until I was aware of Randy Levine’s comments in saying that I was a victim in this whole process,” Betances said in a conference room at Steinbrenner Field during his first day of spring training. “They’re saying how much they love me, but then they take me in a room and they trash me for about an hour and a half and I thought that was unfair for me.”
About an hour earlier, Levine ripped agent Jim Murray for 17 minutes with claims that he was “using” Betances in an attempt to change baseball’s arbitration system during an entertaining rant that brought back memories of the George Steinbrenner’s Bronx Zoo Yankees of the 1970s and ’80.
Betances wasn’t amused.
“For (Levine) to say I’m a victim and my agents are using me … I honestly feel like I was being fair and asking for a fair deal,” Betances said.
Betances says that his camp wanted to negotiate a settlement before the hearing at around $4 million, “but there was no coming to the middle for them … All I know is when I went in that room, I looked them in the eye and I said we don’t have to be in this room. I told (GM Brian) Cashman that. I told Randy Levine that.”
In his conference call, Levine pointed out that Betances’ $3 million salary “makes him the highest paid first-time (arbitration) eligible elite setup man in the history of baseball arbitration” and that $5 million salaries only go to “elite closers.”
Betances took offense to those comments.
“I guess your typical setup man pitches one inning,” he said. “You can probably look at times where I went out there for three (innings) or multiples … or with guys on base all the time.”
Betances went on to say that it’s now within his right to tell the Yankees that he should only be used as a one-inning, setup reliever from now on.
“That’s how they value me,” he said. “Some of the stuff that they said in that room … I can’t really go into specifics, but they value me as a setup man or an eighth-inning guy. So is it selfish of me just to say now, ‘I just want to come in for the eighth inning … with no runners on … all the time?’
“That’s not the player I am. I try to go out there and battle for my teammates and try to do the best I can, but when you go in that (hearing) room and see some of the stuff, it’s like, ‘Do you put yourself at risk at all times?'”
Time will tell if Betances tries to prevent the Yankees from making him the workhorse that he’s been or eventually turns the page.
If the Yankees someday try to work out a long-term deal, would he be willing? He loves New York — it’s his hometown — and he says that he loves being a Yankee.
For now, he’s hurting. He’s angry with Levine’s comments, which was like adding fuel to a fire that started during Friday’s hearing.
“They said some good things,” Betances said. “But a lot of things we’re nice. I’ll tell you that much. I was definitely prepared.
“What bothered me is I put my heart and soul into this game so much and for some of those guys to sit right across from me and … for them to say some of the stuff that they said, I was upset about that.”
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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