TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Dellin Betances doesn’t feel he needs to talk with Randy Levine after the New York Yankees president called the reliever a victim of ”over-the-top demands based on very little sense of reality” by his representatives at an arbitration hearing Friday won by the team.
The Yankees beat Betances in the year’s final salary arbitration case, and the relief pitcher will be paid $3 million rather than his $5 million request.
Levine, on Saturday after the decision was announced, said he felt bad that Betances ”was used that way by his agents.”
”I don’t feel like I need to speak to him,” Betances said Sunday. ”I don’t know how they feel on their part. I’m just going to try to get ready, prepare for the season. Try to help my teammates as much as I can win ballgames and perform the best I can.”
Betances had said Saturday he was prepared to move forward until Levine’s comments.
”You’re just not going to get over it as easy,” Betances said. ”I’m not going to say today is a different day for me. I was just glad I was able to come out here and get some work done. That kind of takes some stress off your mind and puts you at ease.”
Betances threw off a bullpen mound Sunday in his first spring training workout, which was also the Yankees’ initial full-squad session. He is set to throw batting practice Wednesday.
”I’ve gotten a lot of support, I’ve talked to a lot of guys,” Betances said. ”A lot of people called me, texted me. They’re just making sure I’m good and focused on what I have to do, which I am.”
A right-hander who turns 29 in March, Betances figures to be primarily a setup man again following Aroldis Chapman’s return to the Yankees. New York gave Chapman an $86 million, five-year contract, a record for a relief pitcher.
Betances struck out 126, leading big league relievers for the third straight year, and went 3-6 with a 3.08 ERA and 12 saves in 17 chances.
”My thought on Dellin is it just happened and everything is fresh in his mind,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ”This kid is a fierce competitor. This kid is a great teammate. This kid has always given us everything he has, and I think he’ll continue to do that. I’m not really concerned about that. I think he’ll be just fine.”
Betances will be leaving the Yankees on March 5 to join the Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic.
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Opening-day starter Mashiro Tanaka threw 25 pitches in batting practice and might next take part in a simulated game. . OF Jacoby Ellsbury, excused from camp for the birth of his child, is expected to report Tuesday or Wednesday. . Guest spring training instructor Nick Swisher is expected Monday.
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