New York City native Dellin Betances has undergone a wild roller-coaster ride over the past two-plus years.
In 2008, the 6-foot-7 right-hander went 9-4 with a 3.67 ERA for Low-A Charleston as a 20-year-old, and boosted his stock to being the No. 5 overall prospect in the Yankees system last year, second only to former first-round pick Andrew Brackman among pitchers.
However, Betances endured a brutal 2009 season that saw him struggle mightily with High-A Tampa (2-5, 5.48 ERA) before undergoing Tommy John surgery in August. Now the right-hander is in the process of rehabbing from the elbow surgery, and was throwing off a mound until some minor biceps tendinitis put him on the shelf recently.
“We shut him down for a bit and we will be back getting him going pretty soon,” Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman said yesterday by phone.
Newman also said Betances will be in live game action before the end of 2010, assuming there are no serious delays in his rehabilitation.
“Yeah, if there’s no setbacks, there’s a real good chance he’ll pitch against competition (this year),” Newman said.
Some other things Newman said in our interview:
– After spending the first month of the season out because of an appendectomy, the Yankees top left-handed pitching prospect, Manny Banuelos, is back in Tampa and will soon be back on the mound in game action. The 5-foot-10 left-hander went 9-5 with a 2.67 ERA in 25 games (19 starts) with Low-A Charleston last season.
“He’s doing physical exercises now,” Newman said. “It’ll be a couple weeks before he’s back into it.”
– Don’t expect Slade Heathcott to be following fellow 2009 draftee J.R. Murphy to Low-A Charleston soon. Asked about the timeline for the advancement of Heathcott, last year’s first-round pick, Newman was non-commital.
“We don’t do timetables,” he said. “We’ll see how things go, see how they match up with the competition, see how they handle gameplans and stuff.
“When we think they’re ready, we move them up. But in each case, it’s individual.”
Look for more on Murphy in tomorrow’s Beating the Bushes column.
– Andrew Brackman is the definition of a work-in-progress. The hard-throwing 6-foot-10 right-hander had Tommy John surgery after the Yankees drafted him in the first round of the 2007 draft out of N.C. State — and before he threw a professional pitch — and struggled mightily last year in his first full professional season, when he went 2-12 with a 5.91 ERA for Low-A Charleston, striking out 103 and walking 76 in 107 innings.
After being bumped up to High-A Tampa this year, Brackman struggled mightily out of the gate before spending a short stint on the disabled list with an injured finger on his pitching hand. Since returning to the lineup, though, Brackman has pitched a little better, though he is 1-3 with a 8.31 ERA this season. More importantly, his walks are significantly down, as he’s struck out 17 and walked just three in 26 innings.
“Yeah, he’s making progress,” Newman said. “He’s throwing a lot of strikes, and his walks are way down. The finger thing delayed him a little bit, but, yeah, we’re happy with him so far. We hope he continues to improve throughout the year, and we’ll see how things go.”
tbontemps@nypost.com
