Luis Severino was supposed to take the mound for the Yankees on Wednesday night, but instead will throw in the bullpen and have his outing pushed back to Saturday due to what Aaron Boone described as “general soreness.”
For any other pitcher, it likely wouldn’t cause anything more than a slight raise of an eyebrow. But for a pitcher with the injury history of Severino, and his importance to the Yankee rotation in 2022, it sets off all kinds of alarms for Tiki and Tierney.
“We’re talking about a player who hasn’t pitched a lot,” Tierney said during Wednesday’s show. “Didn’t play in 2020. Couple bullpen appearances last season. He’s No. 2 in the rotation behind Gerrit Cole…right now, we ae a little more than a week away from the Red Sox, and I see on social media that he has been pushed back and is experiencing general soreness.
“I’m not feeling really good about this right now. He hasn’t pitched a lot in the last couple years, and he’s not feeling good now.”
Severino has pitched just 19.1 innings over the last three sesons due to lat, shoulder, and elbow issues, the latter leading to Tommy John surgery prior to the start of the 2020 season. Recovery, and ensuing setbacks, from the surgery limited Severino to just a handful of bullpen appearances down the stretch of last season, and the Yankees have been left hoping that he can rediscover his elite form of 2017 and 2018.
But Tuesday’s news was not a good start for Severino’s hopeful bounceback campaign.
“The first thing that pops in my mind is ‘this is more than general soreness,’” Tiki said. “It’s like a lead up to, ‘Now he has…’ whatever the injury might be. It feels like this could lead to something else.
“When your first real outing presents something that is going to keep you out from doing what you love doing, it just worries me, because I feel like there’s something else coming.”
Severino actually has pitched two outings for the Yanks this spring, and while the velocity has been there, the command and the results have not. He has allowed seven runs and five walks in 3.2 innings so far, the numbers an afterthought to the main goal, which is to get Severino through the spring healthy and ready to go for the 2022 season.
While Boone said that the plan is to still pitch Severino in the second game of the regular season, news of his soreness is still a cause for major concern.
“This rotation, which already has some question marks around it, has a huge one now,” Tiki said.
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