DETROIT — Luis Severino had doubts. The right-hander has been through so many setbacks over the last three years it’s only natural that he would sometimes get discouraged, sometimes worry that he wouldn’t make it back. A tear in his lat muscle kept him out for all but the last month of the 2019 regular season. Tommy John surgery and a groin injury during his rehab.
“A bunch [of] times. … Every time that you don’t feel as well the next day after I try to pitch or when I was told I couldn’t be a starter, that my arm couldn’t handle that much work,” Severino said of the times he doubted he would make it back. “Right now I’m just happy because my arm is responding pretty well and I did more pitches every time.”
The Yankees have to be thrilled where Severino is as he takes the mound Wednesday night against the Tigers at Comerica Park. The 28-year-old is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA in his first two starts of the season. He’s healthy and not just back, but a wiser and better pitcher.
“He looks really good, better than I expected,” one National League scout said. “Both starts, he looked strong, his stuff has really good life on it. The changeup is better than it was before [the injuries] and he’s using it very effectively.”
Through two starts, Severino has struck out 11 and walked two in eight innings pitched. He has a .219 batting average against and is in the 78 percentile in strikeout percentage and 76 percentile in walk percentage. He’s got the highest ground ball rate of his career.
“Every time you gotta go out and throw five shutout [innings], it’s not easy,” Severino said. “We have a great team and got future MVPs all over the place. So every time I can go out there and throw a good game it’s a good thing for me.”
And it’s huge for the Yankees.
Pitching has carried the Bombers so far this season. The bullpen is the best in the American League, while the starters are coming off a shortened spring training and still building up. So far this year the Yankees have had their ace, Gerrit Cole, struggle through his first three starts. It’s been Nestor Cortes, Jameson Taillon, Jordan Montgomery and Severino who have been the steady starters through 11 games. It’s given the Yankees some breathing room while the bats and Cole try to figure it out.
And it’s really a surprise that the Yankees are getting this from Severino, who pitched just 27.2 innings from spring 2019 to October 2021.
In 2018, he finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting. The next spring he signed a four-year, $40 million extension, which runs through this season with a club option for $15 million with a $2.75 million buyout after this season.
Considering the brilliance he flashed in the first part of the 2018 season, that was a very team-friendly deal.
But just weeks after he signed that deal, Severino was shut down with a shoulder issue which turned out to be a lat tear that kept him out of the big leagues for five months. He pitched in the postseason of 2019 and felt tightness in his forearm and needed Tommy John surgery in March 2020. He missed the entire COVID-abbreviated 2020 season and his return in 2021 was delayed by a groin injury and then shoulder tightness.
So it is understandable that Severino worried about getting back on those days when his arm felt extra sore after throwing. It was natural he might doubt himself when people wondered if maybe it made more sense to use him out of the bullpen for a lighter workload that would be more easily managed.
But Severino never let that get to him. It takes him longer to get ready to pitch every day, he has to be more careful about his diet and has a more structured workout routine. He’s just so happy to be back out there.
“I worked so hard to get back here,” Severino said last week. “I want to stay starting and make the best of it.”
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