Dellin Betances, author of one of the great curveballs of his era and a four-time All-Star as a lockdown reliever for the New York Yankees, has retired from baseball, Jon Heyman reports. Betances, 34, had spent the 2022 season in the Dodgers' minor-league system, and prior to that he enjoyed an 11-year MLB career.
A New York City native, Betances was originally drafted by the Yankees as a sixth-rounder in 2006 out of Grand Street Campus High School in Brooklyn. He began his professional career as a starting pitcher, but injuries and ineffectiveness pressed him into a relief role for which Betances turned out to be perfectly suited. He had brief appearances in the majors in 2011 and 2013 and truly broke out with a dominant rookie campaign in 2014. That season brought the first of four straight All-Star appearances for Betances, who from 2014-18 pitched to a 2.22 ERA (188 ERA+) with 607 strikeouts in 373 ⅓ innings spread across 349 relief appearances. In 2018, Betances became the first relief pitcher in MLB history to strike out 100 or more batters in five straight seasons.
Following an injury-diminished 2019 season, Betances signed a free-agent contract with the crosstown New York Mets. Coming off shoulder and Achilles injuries and eventually afflicted by additional shoulder woes, Betances was never able to stay healthy or find peak form with the Mets. Across two seasons in Queens, Betances had an ERA of 7.82 and was able to pitch just 12 ⅔ innings.
According to Baseball-Reference data, Betances made just more than $30 million in salary in his big-league career.
