New York Yankees Editorial: Severino For Starter Instead Of A Trade?

The New York Yankees are in a great position. After last night’s win, they are nine games over .500. The division is right there for the taking. If they are going to compete and take themselves to a possible playoff birth, they are going to need an arm or possibly two to put them over the top.

Maybe instead of acquiring a starter, they use some resources to get another big reliever and promote a starter from within. I’m not even talking about someone like Aroldis Chapman or Craig Kimbrel, I’m thinking more along the lines of Joaquin Benoit, John Axford or J.J. Hoover.

For the starter role, if they want to add someone, how about Luis Severino? Severino is 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA in nine starts since being promoted to AAA Scranton. However, he hasn’t thrown more than five innings in his past three starts. He’s at 88.1 innings and hasn’t thrown more than 113.1 innings in a season in the minors, so the Yankees aren’t gonna push him much past 145 I’m guessing.

So let’s say CC Sabathia continues to not be good. Let’s say they get Benoit and have him with Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, Chasen Shreve, Adam Warren and Justin Wilson. Can it work to call up Severino and have him pitch five or six and then go to the bullpen to lock it down?

NY Daily News reporter John Harper had a similar thought and spoke to an scout about it:

"Yes, the game is more and more about bullpens, and if you’ve been watching Yankee games, you know how quick Joe Girardi has been to get starters out of the game at times, especially Sabathia and Eovaldi.“It’s not just the Yankees, it’s a trend around the league,” an AL scout said on Thursday. “And a lot of it is coming from the front office. GMs want their managers to manage by the numbers that tell them you’re better off going to the pen than letting an average or below-average starter go a third time around the lineup.”"

For the Yankees, I think they end up improving around the margins. Getting a reliever and a starter and an extra bat but not going big game hunting. Brian Cashman has been one of the best GM’s at working around the margins of the roster at the deadline.

I do think Severino will be up at some point whether as a starter or to get his feet wet in the bigs as a reliever in September. I don’t think Severino will be the starter they turn to this year.

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