After Yankees reliever lost arbitration case, it got real messy

If Orioles fans take some pleasure when they see a rival team involved in some turmoil, then they must be gloating over the events involving the New York Yankees this weekend.

After the club won its arbitration case with reliever Dellin Betances, Yankees president Randy Levine made comments during a conference call with reporters that upset Betances and his agents, among others. This has sparked a war of words and hard feelings between the team and one of the best relievers in Major League Baseball.

While the Orioles seem to have gotten through their two arbitration cases with catcher Caleb Joseph and right-handed reliever Brad Brach, creating no issues between players and team, the opposite happened with the Yankees.

Levine told reporters that Betances' request for $5 million in arbitration (the team's offer was $3 million) had "no bearings in reality" and said the agents for the pitcher made a "half-baked attempt" to "use a player to change a well-established market."

Keep in mind Levine spoke out after his team won its case and Betances will play for $3 million this year. Some suggested hard feelings between player and team began the year earlier when they renewed his salary for the major league minimum after he had a season posting a 1.50 ERA with 14.0 strikeouts per nine innings in 2015.

Betances has been one of the game's best relievers since 2014, going 14-10 with a 1.93 ERA in that time and leading all MLB relievers with 247 innings pitched. He yielded a slash line of just .168/.253/.254 with 14.3 strikeouts per nine in those three years.

But this got so ugly that Betances said in this story: "Even though I disagree with the arbitrator's decision, I was planning on putting everything behind me until I was aware of Randy Levine's comments and saying I was a victim in this whole process. They say how much they love me and then take me into a room and they trash me for an hour and a half, and I thought that was unfair. Especially, I felt I have done a lot for this organization. I have taken the ball time after time. Whenever they needed me I was there for them.

"Some of the stuff they said in that room, they value me as an eighth-inning guy. Is it selfish of me to say now, 'Hey, guys, I just want to come in for the eighth inning with no runners on? That's not the player I am. I go out there and try to battle with my teammates, but now you go in that room and you see some of that stuff, do you put yourself at risk at all times? It's fair for me to say that."

That is some war of words generated over a $2 million difference for a team that had a payroll in the $240 million range in 2016.

By contrast after his hearing, Joseph said: "I will say this, I really appreciated the way they (Orioles management) went about the trial. Their arguments inside the trial, they were very respectful. I didn't walk out of there with any hard feelings. None whatsoever. I don't feel like the relationship changed at all. And I did want to say that because it was a very straightforward, factual trial. I heard some horror stories from people about how bad the experience can be, but for me it was not that bad. And that was good. I'm glad about that."

Joseph lost his case and will play for $700,000 this year and not the $1 million he sought. Brach won his case and will receive $3.05 million for the 2017 season instead of the $2.525 million offered by the club. He made $1.250 million last season.

Even Tony Clark, the head of the players union, reacted to Levine's ill-advised comments.

Tony Clark on Betances: The Yankees' response was "unprofessional" and "should not have happened in the fashion that it did."

-- Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 19, 2017

Already some are speculating that the ugliness over this hearing could lead to changes in the arbitration process, which has been in place since 1974. This year 168 of 183 cases (92 percent) were settled before a hearing, but 15 cases were heard and decided by a three-member panel including those involving Brach and Joseph. With all the data and advanced stats used in the game now perhaps a computer formula approved by the players and owners could be used to settle cases.

This mess for the Yankees started Saturday and continued into Sunday. One report here indicated the Yankees even indirectly blamed lagging ticket sales late last year on Betances. They felt his poor performance later in the year led to losing that led to fewer fans showing up. That's quite a stretch putting that on one player when they use 25 each day. This one got messy, indeed.