According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, right-handed reliever Dellin Betances has chosen to exercise his $6.8 million player option for 2021, keeping him in Flushing for at least another season.
Betances, 32, signed a one-year, $10 million deal with the Mets last December after spending the first eight seasons of his career in the Bronx with the Yankees. His $6 million option escalated to $6.8 million once he logged 40 games on the Mets’ active roster last season.
After elevating himself to the cream of MLB’s relief pitching crop (2.22 ERA/2.26 FIP, 14.63 strikeouts per nine innings over 349 appearances from 2014 through 2018), Betances missed nearly all of the 2019 season with a right shoulder impingement followed by a partial tear of his Achilles tendon in September of that season.
A one-year deal with the then-Carlos Beltran-led Mets seemed like a medium-risk/high-reward deal that could have been a coup for New York. Betances never quite found his rhythm (7.71 ERA over 15 appearances), though he did go six consecutive outings without allowing a run from August 4 to August 18.
With the injuries that have hindered him over the past few seasons presumably behind him (lateral muscle tightness landed Betances on the 10-day injured list on August 30), the Mets are surely hoping for a return to form from a key cog in their bullpen.
We’ll keep you posted with more information as it becomes available.
