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New York Yankees: What to do with Luis Severino

By Sean Basile

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 08: Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees walks back to the dugout after being pulled against the Boston Red Sox during the fourth inning in Game Three of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium on October 08, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 08: Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees walks back to the dugout after being pulled against the Boston Red Sox during the fourth inning in Game Three of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium on October 08, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Could the New York Yankees really change Luis Severino’s role when he returns from the Injured List?

Luis Severino, or “Sevy” as the kids call him these days, has been out all year with a pretty serious shoulder injury. He’s since been progressing (along with Dellin Betances) towards a possible late-season return to the New York Yankees – just in time for a potential World Series run. But what exactly is Severino’s role if/when he does come back into the fray?

Is he a full-fledged starter? Is he a long relief/”bulk” pitcher? Is he a late-inning 2018 Nathan Eovaldi type? We’ll get into all three possibilities.

Luis Severino was one of the best pitchers in baseball for the first half of 2018 until he had a rough patch around the All Star Break and went from 14-2 with a 2.12 ERA to finishing the year on a 5-6 run record-wise with a 3.39 ERA in total. The strikeouts were still there. The velocity was still there. But it’s fair to say the efficiency dipped as he wound up surrendering 13 of his 19 total home runs allowed in the second half.

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Then came 2019 and Sevy was placed on the IL before the season even started with a shoulder injury. Since then, we haven’t seen him in a Yankees uniform on the mound. The biggest concern here, with a possible late-season return, is him getting hurt again. The problem with trotting Sevy out there as an every-fifth-day starter is that he’ll be stretched out. That creates more opportunity for him to re-injure himself.

If he’s used as a full-fledged starting pitcher, the workload will pile up on him and create more stress in the arm as he’s stretched out over 5-6 innings.

The stress becomes less of an issue if he’s used in a 3-4 inning range as a bulk or long relief type of pitcher.

But the best way to optimize his effectiveness and potency (in opinion) is to use him in short bursts at the back-end of games. We saw this last year with Nathan Eovaldi. He’s a guy with arm issues of his own, but the Sox brought him on and utilized him in short, late-inning work. Yes, we all know he threw those huge 7 innings and nearly 100 pitches against the Dodgers in extra innings of Game 3 of the World Series. But look how he’s recovered.

He had to spend a long period of time on the shelf this year and just now are the Red Sox easing him back into a bullpen role (and he still doesn’t look 100%). If the Yankees are going to bring Severino back this year for a potential World Series run, keep his workload to a minimum and let him operate in small bursts.

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Let him set up Aroldis Chapman in the 7th or 8th inning. Let him throw 15-20 pitches and be able to come back strong the following game. With a shoulder injury, 45-55 pitches is a lot to rebound from, let alone 75-85 as a typical starter would likely throw at any given time. Limit the innings, limit the pitch count, utilize him out of the bullpen, and the New York Yankees will get the best Severino they can hope for this year.

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