Dellin Betances Working Toward Life After Velocity

Mets right-hander has been putting more emphasis on fastball carry, which should allow his breaking stuff to breathe a bit

Dellin Betances is at a crossroads in his career.

Far removed from the upper-crust pitcher he once was, the 32-year-old right-hander is now forced to rely on his pitching pedigree as opposed to his pure stuff in order to succeed.

From 2014 through 2018, Betances was arguably one of the best relief pitchers in the game across town for the Yankees.

His 2.22 ERA (2.26 FIP) and 11.2 wins above replacement (FanGraphs) over that span (second in MLB among qualified relievers) don’t really even do his dominance justice.

Betances’ 14.63 strikeouts per nine innings and 1.02 WHIP during that time were good for third and 15th among that same group, respectively, and his 25.1% hard-hit rate and 0.60 home runs allowed per nine ranked 14th and 29th.

Then came 2019.

A bone spur in Betances’ shoulder in April led him to miss all but one appearance of that season. A torn Achilles tendon suffered after finishing that inning of work shelved him for the remainder of the year, as well as presumably hindering his 2019-20 offseason.

In his first season in Queens after signing a one-year, $10.5 million deal with the Mets ahead of the 2020 offseason (two options years, one of which was exercised for the 2021 season at $6 million and another vested player option for 2022), Betances struggled.

Though, if you overlook his 7.71 ERA and 9.26 walks per nine (no, that is not a typo) over 15 appearances (11.2 innings), and you do find positives. Talk about a leap…

Over 10 appearances between August 4 and September 26, Betances pitched to a 3.00 ERA with a .194/.375/.194 slash against. The seven walks he allowed over that span were the direct cause of that bloated on-base percentage.

Despite the control issues, that will play.

Now, if Betances were to remedy those command deficiencies — in turn, eliminating or at least substantially decreasing those bases-on-balls — it could theoretically put an entire new paint job on things.

Well, apparently that’s the plan.

Speaking with the media on Wednesday from Port St. Lucie, Betances admitted to putting extra effort into correcting some of his mechanical issues this offseason, hoping to allow the rest of his game to fall into place.

“This offseason, I tried to make sure my body was right. Make sure that I get to my kinda version of 2018 where I had carry on the ball and, you know, I could play that off my breaking ball.”

“I feel like I have better carry on my ball right now. I’m not getting that cut,” he said. “I think that’s just gonna help me get more swings and misses which I lacked last year. So I think that’s something I’ve been trying to focus on.”

Via Betances’ Statcast page, that all checks out.

Compared to 2018, his four-seamer added 7.1 inches of vertical drop, lost 2.5 inches of horizontal movement, and his heater’s whiff rate dropped from 32.3 percent to 13.2 percent in 2020. Not ideal.

With added carry, even without that extra velocity, keeping his fastball on an even plane should indeed open up doors for his curveball and still vicious but rarely-used slider (10.4 inches of vertical movement above average in 2020; 29.2% putaway rate).

During his offseason biomechanics and mechanics work, Betances alluded to finding a way to succeed without the high-velocity fastball he’s enjoyed in the past (97.7 MPH average in 2018; 93.6 MPH in 2020).

“I think that was one of the biggest keys for me [this offseason], was just working on my mechanics, making sure that the ball is doing what I want it to do, getting that carry, that kinda rise to the fastball.”

“Last year, obviously, my velo wasn’t there. Everything was cutting. My breaking balls weren’t as effective. My fastball wasn’t as effective. So I’m trying to get to that point […] I’m kinda excited to take that into live BP this week and build off that.”

Betances is facing hitters in live batting practice for the first time on Friday. We’ll keep you posted.

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