Yankees: Luis Severino shut down from throwing with forearm soreness

Earlier this week reports surfaced that the Yankees planned on taking things slow with Luis Severino to start spring training after he missed the majority of last season due to injury. On Thursday, things took a turn for the worse when it was announced the All-Star right-hander has been shut down from throwing due to forearm soreness.

This is a potential nightmare situation for the Yankees. With James Paxton already expected to be out of action until May at the earliest, it sure looks like the Yanks are going to be without their second and third best starters to begin the season.

Not only is Severino apparently dealing with right forearm soreness but he also has a loose body in his elbow according to manager Aaron Boone. This is the second straight spring Sevy has been shut down with an arm issue and the Yankees better hope this injury doesn’t force him to miss the majority of the season like it did in 2019.

Boone says the discomfort first started during his final start of the postseason last October in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Astros. Throughout the offseason, the soreness continued which led to him undergoing two MRIs and a CT scan that didn’t show anything of concern.

The pain reportedly came when Sevy would throw changeups so the Yankees had him only throwing fastballs and sliders when he arrived at camp. He resumed throwing changeups these last couple days but the soreness returned Wednesday night and on Thursday the team decided to shut him down.

GM Brian Cashman met with reporters after the news broke and said it’s an unknown as to whether this is a minor issue or something that could turn out to be significant. I’m sure we’ll find out more specifics over the course of the weekend once Sevy meets with the team doctor and goes through more tests. Whatever the tests reveal it’s hard to be optimistic about Sevy avoiding the IL to start the season.

Boone told reporters just two days ago the team was takings things slow with Sevy to start the spring and that he was about a week behind all the other pitchers at camp. Now he’s about to fall even further behind so the Yankees will have to begin preparing for the start of the regular season without him.

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With Sevy shut down I think it’s safe to assume that Jordan Montgomery is now definitely going to be a part of the starting rotation out of camp. He was the heavy favorite to be the fifth starter entering spring training, but now he’ll likely start the year in the fourth slot and there will be an open competition for someone to fill in for Sevy.

Veteran Chad Bettis (signed to a minor-league deal) along with prospects Mike King and Deivi Garcia should all be in the mix for that final spot on the starting staff. The same goes for Jonathan Loasiga and Luis Cessa, even though both right-handers seem much more equipped to pitch out of the bullpen.

Don’t be surprised either if Cashman tries to make a trade in the coming days to add some depth to the staff. Could this be an opportunity for him to finally part ways with Clint Frazier? He’s still one of the Yankees top trade chips, but he’s likely going to be the odd man out in the outfield once again and start the season at Triple-A.