Rapid Reaction: After yesterday's meltdown, the Yankees cannot trust Dellin Betances
While the 2018 MLB
season is still only three days old for the Yankees, there is a major question
looming from the bullpen: can they trust Dellin Betances? It does seem somewhat
premature to ask the question so early in the season, where most guys are still
finding their regular season groove, but with Betances' history, this question
needs to be addressed.
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| Photo Credit: The Canadian Press via AP / Fred Thornhill |
Betances left Tampa on a high note this spring showing a
lot of promise, but what has come out of his first two appearances is more of
his September showing last year than his spring. In his first regular season
action, Kevin Pillar sent his first offering of the year six rows deep. While
Dellin managed to contain the damage to just that homer, it was not encouraging
to see a guy get rocked like that. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild
simply chalked it up to being “an ambush” – with Pillar sitting on the
fastball. Unfortunately, that was not the only blip that we would see out of
him as Saturday brought us a complete meltdown like none other.
After a scoreless seventh inning, Aaron Boone decided to
trot out the 6’ 8” righty for one more, perhaps to preserve some of the other
bullpen arms (in case of extras) and to give Chapman some additional rest. What
transpired was both frustrating and mind-boggling. The inning began with
Betances falling behind Yangervis Solarte 2-0, and then Solarte taking the next
pitch deep to center to give the Blue Jays the lead. Betances went on to strike
out the next batter, but Kevin Pillar got to him again, managing a single. Pillar
wasn’t done wreaking havoc, however, as he managed to swipe second and third.
With two outs and two strikes on the Blue Jays number nine hitter, Pillar
teased Betances from third and eventually broke for home. This caught Dellin
completely off guard and seemed to put his brain into a complete pretzel, as he
stepped off the rubber and threw the ball completely wide and straight at Gary
Sanchez’s feet, allowing Pillar to score. To say that Betances looked silly
would be an understatement.
This brings us to the question; can the Yankees trust him?
Personally, I don’t think the Yankees can trust him anymore. While his career
body of work speaks to the opposite and is an impressive resume, his stuff of
late is not even in the same conversation. His location has been extremely
erratic, missing pitches all over the place, not to mention baserunners now
feel they have free reign on him. It also appears that he has completely gotten
inside his own head, his body language speaks volumes of that.
Right now, Dellin
Betances reminds me of a real-life version of Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn from the
movie Major League 2. A movie in which the fireball closer (still closely
applies) completely loses himself and his pitching. Now in the movie he does
turn it around, so maybe there is still hope. I just don’t see how in a close
game situation Aaron Boone can pick up the phone and ask for Betances,
especially with so many other competent options out there. I don’t think he
should completely abandon him, since its literally coming up on the fourth game
of the season, but there is no excuse to put him in a high leverage situation
right now until he figures it out. He has shown us before that he can turn the
tide, but until he does show more of that promise and upside, we are likely
going to see less of the big fella.
Article by: AJ Welch
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