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BRIDGEWATER – Luis Severino believes he’s ready to make his next start for the New York Yankees, and the club’s hand may be forced.
As Domingo German was ejected Tuesday night in Toronto for the apparent use of an illegal substance, for which he’d face a 10-game suspension, Severino was putting the finishing touches on his latest rehab outing at TD Bank Ballpark with the Somerset Patriots.
Severino needed 58 pitches (39 strikes) to get through 3 1/3 innings; he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three but allowed some harder contact as his start went on.
“When you get hit down here, that means you’re ready in the big leagues,” he said. “That happens every time you go to a rehab assignment, you get hit. So, I’m big-league ready. (The Yankees haven’t told me the plan), not right now, that’s going to be something for maybe tomorrow or the next day.”
Asked directly if he’d be ready if he got that call, the answer was simple.
“Yes.”
As of now, Severino would be lined up to make his season debut for the Yankees on the road in Cincinnati in their road trip finale on Sunday after missing the beginning of the year with a reported low-grade strain of his right lat. He said that he achieved his goal of leaving the start how he entered it, healthy, which is an accomplishment given his recent injury history.
This marked the fourth rehab assignment over the last three years for Severino – and sixth of his major-league career – who finished in the Top-10 in Cy Young Award voting in the back-to-back years of 2017 and 2018 but has thrown just 120 innings in the big leagues since, with 102 of those coming just last year.
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He did have a brief scare early in the outing, seeing the brand-new scoreboard flash numbers on his fastball that were far lower than he was accustomed to seeing. Turns out, it was just the stadium’s radar gun being a few ticks low.
“At the beginning, I was a little concerned,” Severino said through a look of befuddlement. “I saw a lot of 91 out of there, and I was like, ‘There’s no way this is (right),’ and then I asked, and it was 95-97, so I’m good. I thought my fastball was going to be there, that wasn’t a worry. When I need it, it’ll be there.”
As much as Severino would rather have been in the big leagues, he also enjoyed the memories that an outing at the Double-A level seemed to bring back.
“I see the guys here every time I come down, grinding to get better each day to make it to the big leagues,” he said. “When I was (in Double-A), I was thinking I’m really far away from the big leagues, but you’re one call away from being a big leaguer. Every time I’m down here, I remember those days.”
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