Yankees: Dellin Betances has became baseball’s most dominant reliever again

The Yankees were winning by a wide margin in game 3 of the ALCS last year but Joe Girardi still gave Dellin Betances a look of vitriol as he yanked him out of the game in the 9th inning. Betances fell apart on the mound to the point that the Yankees couldn’t trust him anymore. 2018 rolled around and it was the same.

He imploded against the league’s worst teams back in March and April. In the first series of the season against the Blue Jays Betances gave up 3 runs and a steal of home and was just downright pedestrian. By the time the Yankees rolled into the Detroit, the Tigers offense rolled over Betances for 3 runs and 5 hits.

Then, like magic, Betances started to put it together. A few weeks removed from his disasters in Toronto and Detroit, the Yankees walked into Houston facing one of their biggest challenges of the year and it was against the World Champs where Betances finally found his groove.

In two innings of relief that series the potent Astros offense were only able to muster up one hit against him. His most masterful performance of the year up to that point came when he struck out the side. He made the champs feel as pedestrian as he felt in the Rogers Centre.

There were a few more hiccups after that but as the season has progressed we’re watching Betances become more and more lights out. According to Yankees beat writer Bryan Hoch, our eyes haven’t been deceiving us either. Betances is great.

Once a big question mark, Betances has now become the answer again. Unfortunately, this is baseball and things don’t line up in sync the way you’d like it to. Betances has flourished while Aroldis Chapman has shifted into the questioning role.

We became used to Chapman shutting down the 9th and expected it to be automatic. Watching him flounder against the Mets, Red Sox and almost fall apart against the Rangers Thursday almost makes it feel like we’re looking at a different person. The Chapman we knew was used to throwing between 100 and 102 mph fastballs. This Chapman threw one for 95 Thursday night against Texas. A rare sight to see him be human this season.

We kept hearing about his knee being a problem all year and now we just may be seeing that reality come to fold. The Yankees haven’t released any official statements regarding his health but against the Rangers, it looked like Chapman was wincing on the mound. His movement around it between pitches wasn’t fluid. From the start, Chapman looked like he was limping around to buy himself some time before he needed to throw some more fire the batter’s way.

If getting around is hard, winding up in hopes of throwing 100 mph must be cheering. Not only is he fighting the opposing batters but he’s also fighting his body. Losing Chapman would be a glaring hole but to throw him out there and maybe hurt himself more isn’t worth it. This team has been battling injuries all year and one more would be par for the course.

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The obvious choice to replace Chapman would be Zach Britton. This is the guy who once went a whole season without blowing a save. You just don’t see that anymore. The thing is, the Yankees have a different Britton.

This Britton, while still nasty out there on the mound, has command issues. He walked the bases loaded against the Royals, had trouble against the Red Sox, and gave the game right back to the White Sox after Stanton’s pivotal Stantonian bomb in the 10th inning. At the moment Britton is still shaking off the cobwebs after a long time off.

Betances, right now, is everything Britton and Chapman are not. He is dominant. His outs are automatic. Every batter is forced to wonder at the plate whether they’re getting a flamethrower right over the plate they can’t catch up to, or a changeup about 15-miles less than his hardest fastball.

The last time Betances even gave up a run was in Baltimore on July 10th and if you look back to that game, it wasn’t even his fault. Greg Bird failed to snag the liner that came right at him. That was the only run Betances gave up in all of July and before then, you’d have to go back to May 23rd in Texas to see him falter.

June, arguable July and now August we’re watching him quietly put together a scoreless streak. If the worst case scenario of losing Chapman is what we’re facing, Britton and Betances could have situational closer roles. If the heart of the lineup comes up in the eight, Boone puts the ball in Betances’ hand and once he gets rid of them with relative ease, you give the weaker part of the lineup to Britton. If it’s a pivotal playoff series, you can even keep the ball in Betances’ hands.

Betances struggled with two-inning appearances earlier on but that was a different pitcher. That pitcher was still figuring out his identity. This Betances is one cutter away from being the Brooklyn boy who took over the Iron Throne of the great Mariano Rivera.