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'Absolute disgrace': Union exec blasts Yankees president for Betances remarks

Brad Penner / USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees president Randy Levine's harsh words for Dellin Betances after their arbitration hearing has drawn the ire of one senior union executive.

Rick Shapiro, a senior member of the union who was also tasked with arguing part of Betances' case during the hearing, tore into Levine for his post-arbitration remarks calling the reliever's $5-million salary request a "half-baked" attempt at manipulating the market.

"For the president of the Yankees to say the things he said is totally unprecedented in salary-arbitration history, an absolute disgrace to the arbitration process and to all of Major League Baseball," Shapiro told FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal. "The only thing that has been unprecedented in the last 36 hours is that a club official, after winning a case, called a news conference to effectively gloat about his victory - that's unprecedented."

Betances, who's been one of the best relievers in baseball in recent seasons, posted a 3.08 ERA in 73 innings in 2016, but those numbers apparently weren't the ones of concern to the Yankees.

According to Betances' agent Jim Murray, during the tense arbitration hearing, Levine argued the reliever was responsible for declining ticket sales at Yankee Stadium and added that the "sky will fall" if they had ruled in Betances' favor.

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