20-year-old flame-thrower could be Yankees’ rotation savior
By Dan MartinFebruary 7, 2015 | 9:39pm
If the Yankees plan on contending in 2015, they will need significant bounce-back years from high-profile players like CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, something general manager Brian Cashman conceded on Friday.
But for the Yankees to get back to the top of the AL East on a consistent basis, it won’t necessarily be up to Sabathia and Teixeira or Carlos Beltran, who the Yankees also hope is healthy and productive after he was neither last season.
Instead, their future success likely will rely more on some names fans may hardly know right now, but who will be in major league spring training for the first time this season.
And perhaps at the top of the list is right-hander Luis Severino, who has bolted up the Yankees’ farm system and become one of their top prospects.
“He’s made a lot of progress,” said Gil Patterson, who has worked with Severino as the Yankees’ minor league pitching coordinator. “It’s hard to believe he isn’t even 21 yet.”
That will happen later this month, on the same day pitchers and catchers will report to camp in Tampa.
In just his third professional season, Severino jumped from Single-A Charleston to Double-A Trenton. In six starts with Trenton, he went 2-2 with a 2.52 ERA and struck out 29 in 25 innings.
“His fastball has a lot of life and hits 95-plus,” Patterson said. “He’s got a slider and a changeup. And he’s mature. He’s everything you’d want in a young, developing pitcher.”
That sure sounds good, but so did the scouting reports about past Yankee phenoms like Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances.
Banuelos, though, dealt with arm trouble and never developed into the pitcher the Yankees had hoped for before being traded to the Braves this offseason.
Betances could start the season as the Yankees’ likely closer thanks to his sudden emergence last year and David Robertson’s free-agent departure to the White Sox.
But before Betances became an All-Star, the 6-foot-8 righty struggled with control problems, and was converted from starter to reliever, a role he eventually embraced.
“He hasn’t really faced any adversity yet,” Patterson said. “We’ll see what happens when he does.”
The Yankees view Severino as a starter, even though he is listed at just 6 feet, 195 pounds. All but two of his minor league appearances have come as a starter.
“That’s such a precious commodity in baseball these days,” Patterson said. “And Pedro Martinez wasn’t any bigger and he showed what a hard-throwing right-hander can do without a lot of size.”
In addition to the fastball, Severino has a solid slider and a developing changeup that figures to get him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre sometime soon and maybe The Bronx after that.
With more consistency on his breaking balls and what Patterson believes is some necessary work on repeating his delivery, Severino could help the Yankees soon.
“I hope he gets to the point where he’s not knocking on the door,” Patterson said. “I hope he’s breaking it down.”
nypost.com/2015/02/07/this-yankees-farm-hand-could-have-an-impact-sooner-than-later/
? to expect everything to turn up roses......
