New York Yankees: Luis Severino is headed for a salary arbitration hearing
By Paul Ashley
The New York Yankees were able to avoid salary arbitration with eight players, but the organization is headed towards a hearing with one.
The New York Yankees confirmed through Twitter that they were able to come to terms on one-year contracts with Dellin Betances, Greg Bird, Sonny Gray, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Tommy Kahnle, James Paxton, and Austin Romine for the upcoming season. Even though it is impressive that the organization was able to avoid a salary arbitration hearing with many key players, there is one arbitration eligible player remaining that has not yet agreed to a contract.
According to Jeff Passan on Twitter, league sources have told ESPN that the Yankees are expected to end up in a salary arbitration hearing with one of their top young players, Luis Severino. Although there is still time for an agreement to take place based on the salary figures submitted by each side, an arbitration hearing will likely be required next month to determine which salary will be selected.
The last salary arbitration hearing for the Yankees took place roughly two years ago when the organization was unable to reach an agreement with Dellin Betances. After the front office filed for a $3.00 million salary and Betances filed for a $5.00 million salary, the two sides entered a salary arbitration hearing to make a case for why their submitted salary should be selected by the arbitrators.
Even though this seems like a simple process to resolve a salary dispute, it can create tension between the two sides that may impact future free agent negotiations. In this case, the Yankees felt Betances should be treated as any other non-closing pitcher while Betances felt as if he should be treated as a closing pitcher.
Although Betances was not a closer due to a strong Yankees’ bullpen, he and Murray felt their submitted salary was reasonable considering Jonathan Papelbon received $6.25 million ahead of the 2009 season at a similar point of his career.
Prior to receiving his payday from the Boston Red Sox, Papelbon had compiled a 1.84 ERA, a 2.50 FIP, and a 0.930 WHIP in 230.0 innings pitched alongside three All-Star appearances. Prior to Betances’ aforementioned salary dispute, he compiled a 2.16 ERA, a 2.06 FIP, and a 1.001 WHIP through 254.2 innings pitched alongside three All-Star appearances of his own.
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Despite having similar numbers and accolades, he only compiled 22 saves during this time compared to the 113 saves Papelbon was able to accumulate. Unfortunately for Betances, not having the opportunity to compile a large amount of saves was likely the main cause in losing his salary arbitration hearing. To make things worse, Yankees’ president Randy Levine made some surprising comments following the arbitration victory over Betances.
In an article by Billy Witz of the New York Times, Levine responded to comments made by Betances’ agent Jim Murray that referred to the right-handed reliever as a “victim” following his salary arbitration hearing. “It’s like me saying, ‘I’m not the president of the Yankees; I’m an astronaut,'” Levine said. “No, I’m not an astronaut, and Dellin Betances is not a closer. That $5.00 million number? It might as well have been $50.00 million.”
“They take me in a room, and they trash me for about an hour and a half,” Betances said in the same article. “I thought that was unfair for me. I feel like I’ve done a lot for this organization, especially in these last three years. I’ve taken the ball time after time. Whenever they needed me, I was there for them.”
Even though Betances has since been able to reach salary arbitration agreements with the Yankees, it will be interesting to see if any animosity remains when he reaches free agency following the 2019 season. As this was the first salary arbitration hearing for the Yankees organization since defeating Chien-Ming Wang ahead of the 2008 season, they may need to take a different approach with Severino to avoid any future animosity.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Twitter, the Yankees filed for $4.40 million and Severino filed for $5.25 million. This is not as large of a gap as the $2.00 million difference in Betances’ situation, but it could still loom large down the road depending on what happens during and after a potential salary arbitration hearing between the Yankees organization and Severino.
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Within a potential arbitration hearing, Severino and his agent will likely lean on his 19-8 win-loss record during his second straight All-Star season while the Yankees organization will likely lean on a rough second half in which he posted a 5.57 ERA and a 1.429 WHIP through 63.0 innings pitched. This will be an interesting situation to monitor as the team will need a motivated Luis Severino in order to capture another World Series championship.