While in studio with Tiki and Tierney on Tuesday, former Yankee great CC Sabathia was asked which current Yankee was facing the most pressure in 2023.
His answer? It was a surprising one, as Sabathia went with a former rotation mate.
“For me, for this season, it would be Luis Severino,” Sabathia said. “We need Sevy to be healthy. He’s an ace when he’s healthy, he just hasn’t been able to pitch 30 starts for us during the season. But if he can do that for us, I feel really good about what this team will be able to do.”
Severino was a CY Young candidate in 2017, when he and Sabathia helped lead the Yanks to game seven of the ALCS. But the righty showed fatigue down the stretch in 2018, and since then, has never been able to consistently take the mound. Injuries derailed his 2019 campaign, mainly due to a lat injury, and then underwent Tommy John surgery that kept him out nearly all of 2020 and 2021. Setbacks in his recovery from Tommy John delayed his 2022 return, and he was soon back on the shelf with another lat injury. That long list of health problems led GM Brian Cashman to keep Severino from pitching in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Of course, Sabathia included the caveat that given the team’s consistent failures in the ALCS since his playing days, the whole team will be under pressure to get over the hump in 2023.
“I think it’s all of them, right?” Sabathia said. “They’ve kind of fallen short, even when I was there, in 2017, against this Astros organization. I think the pressure is on everybody in that clubhouse. I think they’re all feeling it.”
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