Betances spent part of his winter workout focusing on improving his fielding. Several times a week, he added agility drills to his workout regimen, with the intent of moving his 6-foot-8, 265-pound frame more nimbly around the field and also improving his pickoff move. (Base runners were 21 for 21 in stolen-base attempts against Betances last season — a figure that was used against him in arbitration.) He also has spent time since the new year doing fielding drills to improve his throwing.

“I just felt like I needed to get myself better,” said Betances, who committed two critical errors in September — launching a soft toss over the catcher’s head in a loss to the Dodgers and fumbling a bunt during a win in Toronto.

He added: “This is the stuff you’re supposed to be good at, so most of your time, you try to work on pitches. That’s what we get paid for, but if you need help in a certain area like that, you need to take it on yourself to work on it. I never worked on it before in the off-season. There are people that don’t work on it, but they’re good at it. I just know I don’t want to give away free bases.”

While Betances’ problems may have been the most visible, they were far from the only ones. C. C. Sabathia led the Yankees with four errors, and 12 pitchers committed at least one error. Luis Severino committed two, in the same game, dropping throws to first. That was the same gaffe committed by Ben Heller, whose mistake might have been attributed to nerves: It came in his major league debut.

“You can take as many reps as you want, but nothing prepares you for the heat of the game,” said Chad Green, who committed no errors in 140 ⅓ innings between the Yankees and Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Green, who has committed two errors in his four years of professional baseball, credited his glove work to playing third base and first base in high school.

“In spring training, it’s easy to say, ‘Let’s get it done’ and move on to the next thing,” Green said. “But you can win and lose games on these kinds of plays. It seems simple, if you have the right footwork and make the throw, like it should be an easy out.”

The Yankees, with an increasingly young, untested team, would like to have more of them.