Steinbrenner petty vindictiveness rears its ugly head again: Dellin Betances arbitration.

Hal Steinbrenner may seem like a simpleton. A kinder, gentler version of his late father George. Maybe even someone with common sense business acumen.

Today Yankee relief pitcher Dellin Betances will learn the decision in his salary arbitration case with the New York Yankees. The arbitration panel will select one of the two salaries submitted, one from each side: either $5 million or $3 million.

It's likely that Betances would have been willing to split the difference and not go through the aggravation of the four hour arbitration hearing. However, the Yankees were not willing. That extra one million dollars apparently meant a lot to Yankee management, at least symbolically.

Here is the Yankee triumvirate, which deals out salary justice and retribution, Steinbrenner fashion:
Hal Steinbrenner, part owner and managing general partner
Randy Levine, president
Brian Cashman, general manager.

Dellin Betances
Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 8", Weight: 265 lb.
Born: March 23, 1988 in New York, NY (Age 28 years, 332 days)
High School: Grand Street Campus HS (Brooklyn, NY)
Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 8th round of the 2006 amateur draft.
Signed July 5, 2006.
Debut: September 22, 2011 (Age 23)

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W	Awards
2011	23	NYY	AL	0	0		6.75	2	1	0	0	0	0	2.2	1	2	2	0	6	0	2	1	0	0	16	72	9.40	2.625	3.4	0.0	20.3	6.8	0.33
2013	25	NYY	AL	0	0		10.80	6	0	3	0	0	0	5.0	9	6	6	1	2	0	10	0	0	0	26	40	2.85	2.200	16.2	1.8	3.6	18.0	5.00
2014 ★	26	NYY	AL	5	0	1.000	1.40	70	0	8	0	0	1	90.0	46	15	14	4	24	1	135	4	1	2	341	274	1.64	0.778	4.6	0.4	2.4	13.5	5.63	AS,RoY-3
2015 ★	27	NYY	AL	6	4	.600	1.50	74	0	17	0	0	9	84.0	45	17	14	6	40	2	131	3	0	9	332	271	2.48	1.012	4.8	0.6	4.3	14.0	3.28	AS,CYA-14
2016 ★	28	NYY	AL	3	6	.333	3.08	73	0	20	0	0	12	73.0	54	31	25	5	28	0	126	1	0	6	299	141	1.78	1.123	6.7	0.6	3.5	15.5	4.50	AS
5 Yrs				14	10	.583	2.16	225	1	48	0	0	22	254.2	155	71	61	16	100	3	404	9	1	17	1014	189	2.06	1.001	5.5	0.6	3.5	14.3	4.04
162 Game Avg.				4	3	.583	2.16	68	0	14	0	0	7	77	47	21	18	5	30	1	122	3	0	5	305	189	2.06	1.001	5.5	0.6	3.5	14.3	4.04

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/18/2017.

SO per 9 innings 2014, 2015, 2016, All Star years: 13.5, 14, 15.5.

Year	Age	Team	Salary	ServTm(OpnDay)	Sources	Notes/Other Sources
2014	26	New York Yankees	$502,100	0.078	contracts
2015	27	New York Yankees	$507,500	1.078	contracts
2016	28	New York Yankees	$507,500	2.078	contracts
2017 Status		1st-Year Arb Eligible, Earliest Arb Eligible: 2017, Earliest Free Agent: 2020
Career to date (may be incomplete)			$1,517,100

That's tons of money by normal standards but for a major league pitcher Betances has been paid modestly. This is his first chance at the big bucks. And what is happening? The Yankees are blocking him. Why?

At Dellin Betances’ Arbitration Hearing, Yankees Cite Stolen Bases
By BILLY WITZFEB. 17, 2017 New York Times
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

... Friday ... Betances had just spent four hours at his salary arbitration hearing and is expected to learn on Saturday whether the three-member arbitration panel will award him $5 million (as he asked) or $3 million ...

... afterward in the lobby of the hotel where the hearing was held, several of his advisers could be heard nearby grousing about a Yankees tactic during the hearing — namely, focusing on Betances’ slow delivery to home plate, which allowed base runners to steal 21 bases against him last season in 21 attempts...

The decision to go to arbitration with Betances follows a salary disagreement with him a year ago, when the Yankees offered a $540,000 contract, but Betances, unhappy with it, refused to sign it. With Betances not yet eligible for arbitration at that point, the Yankees renewed his contract for the major league minimum of $507,500.

Then came the this year’s standoff. The Yankees’ managing general partner, Hal Steinbrenner, said this week that there had not been a settlement with Betances because “the numbers were just too far apart.” ...

Baltimore reliever Brad Brach won his arbitration case earlier Friday, getting $3.05 million in his second year of being eligible for arbitration. Though Brach has emerged as an elite setup man and was an All-Star last season, he has not been as dominant as Betances.
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Brad Brach? Who the heck is Brad Brach? I had to look him up. He'll be 31 in mid April, born in Freehold, NJ, drafted in round 42 in 2008. Round 42. Betances was drafted in round 8. In 2016 Brach was paid $1,250,000. Betances $507,500. Brach got 2.46 times more than Betances.

Check Brach's pitching record for yourself but if the arbitrators side with the Yankees, Brach will be paid $50,000 more than Betances in 2017.

From those thrilling days of yesteryear:

Paying for dirt on players: Steinbrenner, Selig, Manfred. Steinbrenner Kids? Saturday, January 31, 2015

A previous incident of a star Yankee player being investigated and ridiculed by Yankee ownership involved George Steinbrenner and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield...

... paying a gambler named Howie Spira $40,000 to dig up "dirt" on Winfield...

August 5, 2013, MLB suspended Alex Rodriguez ... a total of 211 regular-season games plus any postseason games...

MLB ... paid a former Biogenesis employee for documents.

In May (2013), Bosch agreed to work with MLB investigators (Manfred) in exchange for his name being removed from the lawsuit ...

Steinbrenner Kids: add tacky to dumb and lazy: trying to void A-Rod's bonus.  Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Why?  And why now?  Is this driven by family hanger on Randy Levine, club president of the New York Yankees?  Is out of control general manager Brian Cashman behind it?  Or are the four adult children of late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner simply exhibiting a family trait that goes back to their father trying to discredit his star player, Dave Winfield, and receiving a lifetime ban by commissioner Fay Vincent, which was overturned by Vincent's successor, Allan Huber "Bud" Selig, who led the cabal that removed Vincent? ...

Motive: petty vindictiveness and self loathing that they gave A-Rod a new contract that they now regret.
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So have we come full circle?  Are the Steinbrenner Kids digging up dirt as we speak to discredit Alex Rodriguez to accomplish some of the following:
- get Rodriguez to retire
- get Rodriguez to accept a trade
- not pay Rodriguez the bonus money he may earn from a marketing agreement between him and the Yankees
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