Severino may be pen-bound
THE difference is so stark the Yankees won’t be able to ignore the Luis Severino starting/relief splits this offseason when the hierarchy constructs and plots its pitching staff for 2017.
“I think that’s going to be a topic of conversation over the winter, I do,” Joe Girardi, who on several prior occasions insisted management viewed the 22year-old as starting material, said before his team’s 7-3 victory over the Orioles on Saturday. “I’m sure it will be talked about at the table.”
Severino opened the season as a starting pitcher in the wake of his 2015 second half, during which he had made the most significant impression of any midseason rotation call-up since Mel Stottlemyre in 1964.
But Severino’s start to 2016 followed not in the path of the beloved Yankees right-hander, who later became the team’s pitcher for the last pinstriped dynasty, but rather the one taken in 2008 by Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes, when those two young pitchers went a combined 0-8 with a 7.99 ERA in 14 starts out of the gate. It was 0-6 with a 7.46 ERA for Severino before he was dispatched to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at the end of May. And when Severino returned to The Bronx in mid-August, it was as a setup guy out of the bullpen — where he thrived.
Given both his repertoire — which basically is limited at this point to four-seamer and hard slider — and the increased importance of stacking up the back of the bullpen, it surely is possible Severino’s greatest value to the Yankees in 2017 will be as a seventh-inning guy who would precede Dellin Betances and, ideally, once-and-again closer Aroldis Chapman, who will become a free agent when the Cubs are done.
Working in relief, Severino’s stuff translated to a 0.39 ERA, no home runs allowed, a .176 batting average against in 76 at-bats and 25 strikeouts in 23 ¹ /3 innings. As a starter over 11 outings, including Saturday’s 3 2/3 innings of work, in which he was touched for three runs and one Manny Machado home run, the ERA was 8.50, with 11 home runs allowed in 208 at-bats and a batting average against of .337 in 47 2/3 innings.
Luis Severino, meet Joba Chamberlain.
Severino left no doubt he hopes to compete for a spot in the rotation next spring, saying he will devote the offseason to working on both his little-used changeup and his signature fastball. Of course he wants to start. Who doesn’t? No one has backyard, childhood dreams of coming out of the bullpen in the sixth or seventh inning.
Girardi, though, issued no such guarantees to Severino. Indeed, the manager issued no guarantees to any Yankee, young or old, veteran or rookie for 2017. How could he when the team will go its fourth straight year without playing in a postseason series?
“I think one of the things players have to understand is there’s no certainty in this game,” Girardi said. “When you take the field on a daily basis, you have to prove yourself. There’s nothing given in this game. You have to go out and earn it. It’s important you never forget that.”
If the Yankees are going to define Severino’s greatest value to the team as a starter, who would presumably join a rotation featuring Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda and an arm to be identified later, the right-hander has work to do.
“You have to command your fastball for more than an inning or two,” Girardi said. “He has to locate his fastball, get usage out of his slider and mix in some changes. Fastball command is extremely important. It’s tough to go deep [in games] if you’re in long counts and walking people. If you don’t locate, they hit it.”
Severino was eminently hittable as a starter, all but unhittable as a relief pitcher. Just as it remains to be seen whether he can make the leap to becoming a reliable starter next year, it remains to be seen whether the Yankees will allow him to compete for a spot in the rotation next spring.