Yankees Chance Adams and the spectre of Luis Severino

A Double-A Standard

At first, it seemed clear that performance would dictate placement; that was not true. And we have already seen that the Yanks needed a lot of starters. Even his use as a reliever never materialized. Meanwhile, Domingo German was called up…from Double-A.

Why, then, was there a disconnect between performance on the field and evaluations from the Yankees?

Fortunately, there are clues and breadcrumbs buried underneath the endless praise. One season-ending review pointed this out:

"It’s not like there aren’t concerns, of course. He’s still walking a moderate amount of batters (3.5 BB/9) and MLB.com even admits that his fastball might lack the necessary spin rate. That could be an issue with a juiced ball in Yankee Stadium."

Now with his spin rate; now we are getting somewhere. And then there is this from his MLB prospect profile:

"His heater doesn’t feature a lot of life, but his combination of velocity and command makes it tough to hit."

Cashman might view that pitch as eminently more hittable in the majors. Even Adams admitted he needed to command the zone better:

"“The change-up is the big one,” Adams said. “Change-ups for strikes and also out of the zone. Fastballs in, sliders back foot, curveball control. A little bit of everything. “I am just trying to fine tune things, but definitely successful change-ups and curveballs.”"

Okay, he had some things to work on. But it seems as if the on-field performance demonstrated his success. And the Yankees needed a lot of pitchers last season. Why was Adams not one of them?

The answer is RHP Luis Severino.