Potentially unceremonious end to Severino’s run
It is at least possible that a terrific Yankees career ended dismally during a beatdown in Baltimore.
There are no certainties regarding Luis Severino’s next appearance, from his role to his uniform. The Yankees are open to talking about dealing away walk-year players — Severino included — ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, The Post’s Joel Sherman reported Monday.
And even if Severino is not dealt, manager Aaron Boone declined to guarantee he would make his next scheduled start.
Severino is earning $15 million this year, and trading the remaining salary (about $5 million) could be part of a strategy that ducks the club under the $293 million luxury-tax threshold.
Such a move would end a Yankees tenure that began in 2012, when the club signed the teenage right-hander out of the Dominican Republic. Severino shot through the farm system, debuted with power and excellence in 2015 and blossomed into a top-tier starter, making All-Star Games in 2017 and ’18.
The Yankees locked up Severino with an extension before the 2019 campaign, which is when the injuries began. He made just three starts that season due to shoulder and lat issues, then required Tommy John surgery in February 2020, which cost him all of that season and the majority of 2021.
Severino missed significant time last year due to injury, too, but pitched well when healthy, posting a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts. The Yankees exercised their club option on the longest-tenured player on their team, but this season has been a disaster.
The one-time ace sustained a lat strain that knocked him out until late May and has been, by his own estimation Sunday, maybe “the worst pitcher in the game” since.
Severino has been wildly inconsistent and prone to implosions, which have risen his ERA to 7.49 through 12 starts. In three of his five July starts, Severino allowed at least seven runs. On Sunday at Camden Yards, the first six Orioles who stepped to bat scored, effectively ending the game as soon as it began.
“I know I can go out there and give us good outings, but right now, nothing that I do is working,” Severino said after the latest dud. “I won’t stop working. I’m going to continue to work and figure out what’s going on. But right now, I feel like I’m not even contributing to this team.”
If Severino remains a Yankee on the other side of the deadline, there is no guarantee he remains in the rotation for a team chasing a wild-card spot.
Nestor Cortes is building up on a rehab assignment and may need only one more outing before he returns. Domingo German was scratched from his scheduled start Monday after feeling discomfort in his armpit Sunday, but still made a strong five-inning relief appearance in a 5-1 loss to the Rays.
If Cortes joins a healthy German, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt, Severino would be the odd man out. Boone would not commit to Severino making his next start, which is lined up for Friday against the Astros.
“Everything’s on the table,” Boone said about Severino’s status in the rotation before the Yankees opened a series against the Rays in The Bronx with a los. “We haven’t ruled in or out anything. [It is] something that we’ll continue to work through here in these coming days.”
Severino insisted he is “100 percent healthy” and acknowledged the uncertainty about his role.
“I don’t know what could happen or what’s going to happen,” Severino said about his precarious rotation spot. “If [I am pulled from the rotation], the only thing I can do is try to get better every day.”