Betances leaned on family during career-threatening slump

SEATTLE — The most dominant reliever in baseball wasn’t ready to accept that a career that started with so much promise was stalling in 2012.

Still, Dellin Betances had been sent from Triple-A to Double-A in his seventh season in the Yankees’ organization, not a career path anyone would embrace.

The 6-foot-8 right-hander, a full-time starter, couldn’t find the plate at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or Trenton, issuing 99 walks in 131 1/3 innings. Add 12 hit batters and 20 wild pitches. Not even the 124 strikeouts could offset those ugly numbers.

Betances didn’t consider quitting on a dream to pitch for his hometown team, but he was aware it wasn’t going well.

“I never got to that point, but it was really frustrating,’’ Betances said. “But I knew I needed a break.’’

So, while he listened to the coaches and accepted being moved to the bullpen in the Arizona Fall League — a move that saved his Yankees career — Betances had a support group in his family.

“They have always been there for me,’’ Betances said of his mother, Maria, and father, Jaime, as well as two brothers and a sister. “The relationship has always been the same. We are a close family, and they have always given me great advice. They were definitely there when times were hard and they definitely have helped me to get where I am now.’’

Born in Washington Heights, raised on the Lower East Side and schooled at Brooklyn’s Grand Street Campus High School, all Betances had to do was look at Jaime to know hard work wasn’t a sometimes thing.

“My father drives for a taxi company, he owns a percentage of it,’’ Betances said of Jaime, who continues to work the job. “It’s definitely hard work. He’s been doing it for a long time.’’

Betances, who signed for $1 million as an eighth-round pick in 2006, bought his parents a house in Bergen County, where he also lives with his sister and his brothers own homes. The family will add one member this coming off-season when Betances marries his fiancé, Janisa.

Maria and Jaime Betances attend a couple of games each homestand not knowing if their son, easily the Yankees’ most electric hurler, will pitch.

“They are definitely excited, they always watch the games,’’ Betances said.

Like many others, the parents likely have to shake their heads over how far their son has come from 2012, when it was almost impossible to see Betances doing in the big leagues what he has done this season.

Betances is 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA, but those numbers are only the beginning. In 37 1/3 innings, he has 63 strikeouts and just 10 walks.

A fastball that comes close to triple digits paired with a knee-buckling breaking ball — a combination curve and slider thrown in the mid-80s — has turned Betances into a dominant reliever who should receive serious consideration for the AL All-Star team.

In a 3-2 win over the Mariners on Tuesday night, Betances showed how far he has come mentally. Working with a 2-1 lead in the seventh, he hit Mike Zunino with one out and wild-pitched him to second. After Michael Saunders whiffed, Betances gave up a soft single to Dustin Ackley just out of the reach of a jumping Brian Roberts that tied the score, 2-2, and saddled him with a blown save. Another single to Brad Miller followed. But Betances didn’t unravel and struck out Willie Bloomquist with a 99-mph fastball.

“I was glad to get Bloomquist and give us a chance to win,’’ Betances said. “A game like this helps you for the next time out.’’

So did a family two years ago when nobody saw this coming.