Yankees Dellin Betances working his way through spring rust
After arriving late to camp due to the birth of his child, Yankees reliever Dellin Betances will need time to refine his location, velocity and stamina before settling into his customary setup role.
The Yankees bullpen is stacked. And free agent signee Adam Ottavino is already getting rave reviews for his “disgusting slider.”
Aroldis Chapman’s knee has passed every test thus far this spring; Tommy Kahnle and Jonathan Holder each pitch 1.1 innings of scoreless ball on Sunday — and Zack Britton and Chad Green had solid bullpen session before the Yanks’ 6-5 win over the Pirates.
However, it was Dellin Betances, who entered his third Grapefruit League game, that still looks to be on shaky ground. Naturally, it’s Spring Training, not to mention Betances arrived in Tampa a week later than the other pitchers due to the birth of his child, so he’s playing catchup.
Betances allowed two runs on two hits while walking two and recording just one out before being pulled by manager Aaron Boone due to an increasing pitch count against the Bucs.
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As Boone told the Daily News, Betances was pressing, which negatively affected his breaking ball.
“I thought maybe today he tried to manufacture it a little bit, so he lost a little bit of his command and labored out there,” the Yankee manager said. “We want him to just continue to stay in his mechanics because that’s a thing he has done so well over the last year. The velo and arm strength will get there.”
Earlier in the week, Betances told the media that in typical fashion, his velocity likely wouldn’t ramp up until May — after drawing concern that his fastball was sitting between 88-90 mph when he first arrived in camp.
Despite that, Betances did touch 93-mph a few times on the radar gun on Sunday and expects to be fine come Opening Day versus the Orioles on March 28 — as he told Newsday:
“When the arm speed comes, the breaking ball will be better and I think everything in general will be better. It’s just a matter of building,” Betances said. “Every outing has gone better [with velocity], which is usually the case. I’m not really worried. I just have to continue to build arm strength. I’ll be ready to go. Once the lights come on and we have about 50,000 in the stands, I’ll be ready to go.”
Although Betances admitted that he felt like “crap,” the Yankees have equipped themselves with an other-worldly bullpen for moments specifically like this. It’s bound to happen this season — when one of their relievers isn’t at his best, there will be plenty of other guys to pick up the slack.