Dellin

Betances

The right-hander was released by the Dodgers earlier in the day and rather than attempt to latch on elsewhere, the 34-year-old hurler has decided to call it a career. Betances was one of the most dominant relief pitchers in all of baseball from 2014 to 2018. He made four consecutive American League All-Star squads from 2014 to 2017 and garnered votes for the Cy Young Award in 2015. He finishes his career with a stellar 2.53 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 14.4 K/9 and 36 saves. He has always been lauded as an exceptional clubhouse guy and a brilliant baseball mind, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see him wind up in coaching.

The 34-year-old right-hander appeared in 19 games between the Dodgers rookie league affiliate and Triple-A Oklahoma City, registering a cringe-inducing 10.26 ERA, 1.80 WHIP and 19/14 K/BB ratio over 16 2/3 innings. It’s unclear if he plans to look for work elsewhere, or if this may be the end of the line for Betances.

Well, this is interesting. Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that Betances will earn $2.5 million this season, if added to the Dodgers’ major-league roster. The towering 34-year-old righty was limited to just one appearance last year with the Mets and has thrown just 13 1/3 innings in the majors since 2019 due to injuries. He’s a fascinating reclamation project for Los Angeles, and could find himself in their bullpen at some point this season, if he can stay healthy.

Betances was included among the Major League Baseball Players Association’s initial list of 160 players on Wednesday that have been declared free agents. Per Tim Britton of The Athletic, the towering 33-year-old righty reliever’s $1 million player option for the 2022 season contained a previously unreported vesting provision, which he failed to trigger after being limited to just one relief appearance before undergoing shoulder surgery in late June. He should draw some interest as a high-risk, low-cost gamble on the free agent market this offseason.

The goal in playing winter ball for the first time is to show teams he’s healthy as he heads into free agency. Betances had surgery in early July to have a Bennett lesion removed from his right shoulder. The 33-year-old might wind up having to settle for a minor league deal this offseason following two disastrous years with the Mets, although perhaps he can up his stock if he looks good in winter ball.

We already knew that Betances was slated for season-ending surgery and now we know what kind of operation he’ll have. He was limited to just one appearance for the Mets this season after posting a 7.71 ERA over 15 appearances for them in 2020.

The 33-year-old recently tossed a scoreless inning during a rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse, but things obviously took a negative turn since then. No further details are known at this time other than the veteran reliever is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Betances gave up two hits and collected a strikeout while throwing 16 pitches (11 strikes) on Wednesday evening. The towering 33-year-old righty has been limited to just one appearance this season due to a shoulder issue.

Betances had two scoreless appearances in his three outings with Class A St. Lucie, though the bad one (5 ER with two walks in one-third of an inning) was particularly ugly. He’s reportedly topped out around 94 mph. With Jeurys Familia and Robert Gsellman on the injured list, it’s likely we’ll see Betances again, though he’s yet to show that he can succeed with diminished stuff.

Betances tossed a scoreless inning in his rehab debut with St. Lucie on Sunday, but the wheels really fell off in this one, which was his second rehab appearance. The veteran reliever is currently on the 60-day injured list for the Mets after being diagnosed with a right shoulder impingement back in early April.