Yankees’ Editorial: Bronx is Boiling: Hopes for 2015

Mandatory Credit: milb.com

2. Luis Severino makes his Big Show debut.

I don’t want to see a September call-up. If the Yankees rotation falters and breaks down as it did in 2014 when they lost four of their five starting pitchers, I don’t want to see them dilly dally like last year. Chase Whitley was serviceable and I like Bryan Mitchell quite a bit, however both are realistically long bullpen arms capable of spot starts, not spots in the rotation.

Luis Severino is a special talent who skyrocketed from obscurity to elite prospect status in one season. His stats speak for themselves. A combined 6-5 record as he climbed three levels, a 2.47 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP while striking out 127 over 113 innings. He was invited to the MLB Futures Game and was named the Yankees’ No. 1 overall prospect.

Severino has never pitched more than 6 innings in a game in his young career, so he is not ready to break camp in the Yankees’ rotation. He should start the year with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders as their ace.

Should the Yankees staff stay healthy this season, there is no reason to rush him along, and the Yankees could afford to give the 21-year old righty time to mature over a full year at Triple-A. If the Yankees’ rotation breaks down again – and let’s face reality folks, it will – then Brian Cashman can’t be relied upon for getting lucky with Brandon McCarthy-types again. It will be time to turn to the Yankees’ future ace, and I for one hope they do.

Next: A-Rod