New York Yankees: What has happened to Luis Severino?

The injury bug continues to torture the New York Yankees and now it seems the organization has issues of its own with keeping players healthy.

More bad news for the New York Yankees struck on Tuesday as it was announced that Luis Severino is in need of Tommy John surgery and will not be suiting up for the 2020 season. This announcement comes on the heels of James Paxton being ruled out until at least May, maybe even June of this year after lower back surgery.

Now, a once heavily-favored Yankee team that was keen on winning at least 100 games has picked itself up again and prepare for a 162-game battle with the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East crown in 2020 that should go down to the wire. As was the case in 2019, the Yankees are straddled with injuries and will need production from their younger talent within the organization while their big guns recover.

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Paxton will be out until at least May or June and Domingo German will be out until June with the suspension he’s serving. Now add Severino being out for the year into that mix and the Yankees now have to account for three starting rotation spots and patch things together for the first quarter, maybe even half of the season.

But all of that aside, let’s talk about Luis Severino because this is a guy who has seen his career come to a screeching halt ever since he signed his four-year extension for $40 million just a year ago around this same time.

Sevy signed his discount extension worth $10 million per year and went on to be shut down for most of the 2019 season with a shoulder injury. Once he returned in late September, he pitched in three regular-season games to the tune of a 1-1 record and allowing just two earned runs in 12 innings. He came on in the postseason to make two starts and had a nice outing against the Twins in the NLDS, and then a not-so-good start against the Astros when he let up two home runs in 4.1 innings work en route to a 4-1 ALCS loss in Game 3.

Looking back on Severino’s 2018 season, he ended the first half of that year with a 14-2 record and 2.31 ERA and was rapidly on course for AL CY Young. But once the second half of 2018 kicked off, he went on a bad streak of 5-6 to close out the year and wound up posting a 3.39 ERA for the year. It was a bit of a collapse and we saw Sevy take some beatings at the hands of the Mets, Rays, and Royals, but what he showed in the first half of 2018 empowered the Yanks to offer him a big extension the following offseason.

To the Yankees’ credit, they were able to get a high-ceiling pitcher like Severino to sign for a much lower bargain than he probably was worth, which makes it all the worse for Severino considering where he is now in his career.

The New York Yankees got away with not having to pay top dollar for him, but on the flip side, I believe this will be a lesson for all future players, especially pitchers, who find themselves in the exact situation Severino was in last offseason. Maximize your value and get yourself paid while you’re still healthy. Severino took less money and now he’s on his way to Tommy John.

It’s very unfortunate to think about considering how gifted Severino is on the mound and the electric stuff he possesses. He didn’t get the money he was probably worth and now the odds look ever so grimmer that he will ever get back to that pinnacle of value. All we can hope for is for Luis Severino to finally get the surgery he needs to fix his arm and for him to come back stronger than ever at the back end of 2021.

What really makes you scratch your head is the fact that the Yankees had Severino all this time experiencing this pain in his shoulder and forearm and waited until now to do something about it. The same goes for the James Paxton situation. Why is he not getting surgery in November but rather in February just days before Spring Training? It’s a very bad look for an organization that has been the gold standard of the sport ever since the game’s inception.

It looks as though the New York  Yankees will have another uphill battle in 2020 for the right to earn title number 28.