Sunday, February 17, 2019

Meet the 2019 Yankees: Dellin Betances



The New York Yankees may only have one more year left with one of the most special relief pitchers to ever grace the game, in my opinion, so let’s take full advantage of that and get the man they call Dealin’ Dellin a ring, shall we? The Yankees are banking on strong starting pitching, a powerful lineup and quite possibly the greatest and deepest bullpen in the history of the game to achieve this, and that begins and ends with Betances. Betances, and Chad Green as well, can come in when a starting pitcher has a short night, he can come in as soon as the fifth or the sixth inning, he can pitch the seventh, the 8th, and even the 9th. Hell, on some nights he could pitch two or three of them, so let’s get reacquainted with possibly the most integral part of the bullpen going forward this season, Mr. Dellin Betances.

Dellin Betances, 30-years old, is a right-handed relief pitcher for the New York Yankees that some would consider to be a “fire man.” Dellin has a 98 MPH four-seam fastball, an 86 MPH curveball, and a rarely thrown 90 MPH changeup that he uses to get himself (in and) out of trouble while on the mound. Dellin, standing 6’8” and weighing 265 lbs., is a big strikeout and groundball pitcher that plays extremely well inside Yankee Stadium, or any stadium for that matter. Dellin, a “failed” starter, is truly a special arm out of the bullpen for the Yankees and has been since arriving on the scene for good in 2014.  


Dellin Betances was born on March 23, 1988 in Washington Heights, Manhattan to parents, Jaime and Maria Betances. Dellin’s parents immigrated to the United Stated before Dellin was born from the Dominican Republic. Betances attended Progress High School within the Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, New York and attended many Yankees games as a child, including David Wells perfect game in 1998 when Dellin was just 10-years old. If it were not for his family taking him to baseball games as a child Dellin may have chosen basketball over baseball and credits his family for his decision. Dellin was already 6’4” in High School and could throw over 90 MPH by the time he graduated, leading many to believe that Dellin would be chosen in the first round of the 2006 MLB First Year Player’s Draft. Dellin, like many pitchers before him, committed to pitching at Vanderbilt University on a baseball scholarship, just in case, and announced that he had a high signing bonus demand and a will to only pitch for the New York Yankees. This led many teams to pass on Betances, but the Yankees took the chance on the big right-hander in the 8th round of the 2006 Draft and gave him $1 million to forego his commitment to the Commodores.

Betances began his professional career with the Staten Island Yankees before being promoted to the Major Leagues for the first time on September 8, 2011. Betances only made two appearances for the team that season before spending the entire 2012 season back in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes-barre RailRiders. Betances, then a full-time starter, was shifted to the relief role in 2013 and was back in the Major Leagues on August 11, 2013. Betances, now a relief pitcher, made the Yankees Opening Day roster in 2014 and was elected to his first All-Star Game in that same season. Betances would finish the 2014 season with 135 strikeouts as a rookie, finishing third in the AL Rookie of the Year Award vote behind Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker and White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu.


Betances was back in the All-Star Game in 2015 and back to striking out opposing batters at an alarming rate, becoming the first reliever to ever strike out 100 or more batters in consecutive seasons for the Yankees on August 19th. Betances made a third straight All-Star Game in 2016 and for the third straight season the righty would strike out 100 batters, finishing the season with 126 strikeouts after seeing fellow relievers Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman traded for prospects, thus ending No Runs D.M.C. Dellin once again made the All-Star Game for the American League in 2017 and even threw an immaculate inning against the Detroit Tigers on August 2, 2017, striking out the side in the eighth inning on the minimum of nine pitches. Dellin was not selected as an All-Star in 2018, breaking his streak of four straight appearances, and will look to build a new streak here in 2019. Truth be told, though, In think Dellin would trade all four All-Star Game nods for just one World Series ring, so let’s see if he can make that happen and if the Yankees can accommodate that this season.

Dealin’ Dellin. The return in 2019.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)