I always enjoy writing about Dellin Betances — not the least because he’s one of my personal favorite Yankees. In terms of post-dynasty players, he’s easily on my Mount Rushmore of favorites. But his is also a great story. The hometown kid burst on the scene with a ton of prospect hype, only to look like he was going to flame out.
Then, in a wonderful plot twist, Dellin turned into perhaps the most dominant and unhittable relief pitcher in the big leagues for a few years, confounding opposing hitters
with his upper-90s fastball and a 12-6 knuckle-curve that instantly turned batsmen’s knees al dente. Betances made our Top 100 Yankees of All-Time, so it certainly makes sense we are going to wish him a happy birthday.
Name: Dellin Betances
Born: March 23, 1988 (New York, NY)
Yankees Tenure: 2011-19
A hometown kid, Betances was born in Manhattan and later moved to the Lower East Side when he was 10. That same year, Betances happened to be at Yankee Stadium on May 17, 1998. Nothing like getting to see David “Boomer” Wells hurl a perfect game in person.
By 2006, Betances stood 6-foot-9 and his fastball was touching 95 mph. Considered a first-round talent, he’d committed to Vanderbilt and there was concern it would take a king’s ransom to get him to break that agreement. Accordingly, the Yankees and every other team passed on him in the first round.
The Yankees stayed patient and eventually selected him in the eighth round, 254th overall. A $1 million signing bonus was enough to get Betances to forgo college ball. Dellin was a Yankee.
Betances’ prospect star waxed and waned as he struggled with command. But by 2011, he was Baseball America’s 43rd-ranked prospect. That season, he made his MLB debut in September, along with his first and only MLB start. Unfortunately, 2012 was a disaster, with Betances completely unable to locate his fastball.
With Betances still struggling in 2013, the Yankees made the fateful decision to move him to the bullpen, where he shined at Triple-A. He struggled in another brief cameo in the majors that year but there was hope.
The stage was set for one of the most surprising individual seasons in recent Yankee history. 2014 Dellin Betances was the kind of thing you tell your grandkids about someday. His stat line was breathtaking: 70 G, 90 IP, 1.40 ERA, 274 ERA+, 135 K, .442 opponent OPS, 3.7 bWAR.
As I noted when writing about his 2014 campaign, the effect was that he basically turned all major league hitters into a pitcher when they came to bat.
Betances was absolutely on another level. He basically turned MLB hitters—the best in the world at what they do—into John Smoltz at the plate for an entire season. The Hall of Fame hurler retired with a career .159 BA and a .433 OPS. Opponents hit .149 against Dellin in his breakout campaign, with a .442 OPS.
If you are a visual learner, here’s 2014 Dellin eviscerating Miguel Cabrera, one of the great hitters of his generation.
2015 was more of the same. Betances was so dominant that when Game 162 had come and gone, he led the Yankees in rWAR. As a relief pitcher. He did not allow an earned run until his 27th appearance of the season, in the Yankees’ 55th game. That is insane. 2014-15 Dellin Betances was historically great. After crunching numbers, I identified in Dellin’s Top 100 article:
Since 1990, the list of relievers who topped Betances by rWAR over two years is short: Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon, who compiled 8.1 rWAR from 2006-07, and Mariano Rivera, who bested Dellin in five different two-year stretches (lol). That’s it. No Billy Wagner. No Craig Kimbrel. No Eric Gagne. No Francisco Rodriguez. Not even a Trevor Hoffman. It’s just Mo, Papelbon, and Dellin.
2016 found Betances pitching out of the same bullpen as Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman. For the first time as a major league reliever, he was a one inning-and-done guy. And he was really good at it, to the tune of 126 strikeouts in 73 innings. The mid-2010s were a weird time for the Yankees, with only one playoff game to their name between 2013-16. But Dellin at least did his part to make his innings a thrill.
That offseason saw an ugly arbitration session, wherein Randy Levine and the Yankees seemed to go out of their way to disrespect Betances. This wasn’t Tarik Skubal and the Tigers either, with a $14 million gap between the camps. Betances wanted a $3 million salary. The Yankees offered $5 million. All that for $2 million. Anyway, you can read the infuriating details of that elsewhere.
Betances pitched two more full seasons in pinstripes as New York returned to regular postseason form. 2018 saw him make baseball history as he became the first reliever to record 100 or more strikeouts in five consecutive seasons.
Little did anyone know his magical run as an elite reliever was over. A should injury in March 2019 sent him to the injured list where he remained until mid-September, when he made his return against Toronto, striking out both hitters he faced. Two days later, the club announced Betances had partially torn his left Achilles during his return outing.
Injuries and COVID conspired to confound Betances, who never returned to form after signing with the Mets in December 2019. He officially retired from baseball in August 2022, but is still involved with the game and began doing work with YES Network in 2025. Look to see him more in the studio in 2026.
Happy birthday, Dellin! I’ll always remember the 2017 Home Run Derby when we were all Dellin Betances, awestruck watching Aaron Judge.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
