New York Mets starting pitcher Luis Severino throws during the first inning of a spring training … [+] baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, March 1, 2024, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Thirty pitches over the course of two spring training innings does not ultimately serve as the predictor of future success.
For Luis Severino, seeing some his final pitch reach 98 miles per hour is significant even in the setting of a Friday afternoon game and his spring training debut as a bearded member of the Mets represents a good opening step in the hope of recapturing some of his past successes with the Yankees.
“I’m just trying to do the same movement with every pitch,” Severino told reporters after facing the Cardinals in Jupiter
JUP
, Fla. “Sometimes in the past, I was rushing with the fastball, and then with the breaking stuff, I was more calm. So I’m just being calm with all my pitches.”
It was Severino’s first time on a mound facing major league hitters since his 141st career outing with the Yankees ended with him walking off with an oblique injury that anyone observing knew was his last appearance with the Yankees. Even before the injury it was unlikely the Yankees were going to re-sign him, especially given his struggles through 89 1/3 innings and his injury history.
Even with those struggles, Severino showed top-10 fastball velocity by averaging 96.4 with the pitcher. The downside was he got lit up for a .301 average and a .921 OPS.
It was the kind of history that led to him signing a one-year, $13 million deal with the Mets early in free agency and represents a “prove it” deal players, especially pitchers often wind up getting when they are coming of various injury-plagued seasons.
New York Mets starting pitcher Luis Severino throws during the first inning of a spring training … [+] baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, March 1, 2024, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Signing players to those deals also signals some kind of belief that a past history exists and the Mets are hoping so and now need more than ever given the latest news on Kodai Senga. While Severino may never be the pitcher who went a combined 33-14 in 2017 and 2018, a version of his 2022 performance is something the Mets would take.
Before the nightmare of last year which could have been caused by tipping pitches, he was 7-3 with a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts that were sandwiched around two injured list stints, including two months with an oblique injury. The two months were deemed unnecessary by Severino but at the time the Yankees held a double-digit lead and felt they could afford to stall for Severino.
Now the key for Severino is to incorporate a somewhat newfound sinker like he did on Friday when he threw the pitch 11 times. It was a rarely used pitched last year and something he last threw during his two months in the Yankee rotation in 2015 to help them nail down homefield advantage for the wild-card game.
“I think I need to work more on it,” Severino told reporters. “I think it was dropping a lot of depth instead of moving in, but that is not bad. That is not terrible. I just need a little more location.
Another key is making sure he gets through spring training unscathed on the medical front.
His 2018 performance earned him a four-year contract early in spring training and then the right-hander was limited to three starts in 2019. Then Tommy John surgery kept him from pitching in the pandemic 2020 season and the subsequent recovery limited him to four starts late in the 2021 season.
Repeating what he achieved three or four more times in spring training would represent a good opening step on the path to career redemption. Maybe it is something the Mets can become optimistic about once the games start counting for real.
“This is the first game of the season so it doesn’t mean a lot,” Severino said. “At the same time, going out there and working every day and I have been healthy afterward.”
