4 former Yankees shining in spring training to the frustration of fans

Luis Severino

Though the New York Mets have done nothing but pick up the Yankees' scraps and remain irrelevant, this development might put fans over the edge. Fully over it. And only a deep playoff run will make it go away.

Luis Severino, who was legitimately the worst starting pitcher in MLB last season, logged five scoreless outings across his first two starts with the Mets this spring. He allowed just three hits and zero walks while striking out five. His trademark velocity looks like it's coming back. In his third outing against Houston on Wednesday night, he got absolutely rocked, per usual -- oh, wait, nope. Just kidding. He allowed two hits in four innings and surrendered a single run against the team that typically destroys him.

Just in time! After the Yankees have been waiting since 2018 for that to happen again. Severino's 2019-2023 was marred by injuries, organizational tension, and letdown after letdown. If you want to admire him for his 2017-2018 showings, that's totally fine, but not reporting your injuries to the training staff, forgetting the start time of a playoff game, and calling out the team for putting you on the 60-day injured list even though there was no plausible way you'd be return before then ... pretty much negates all the good that was done.

Severino was supposed to be a franchise cornerstone starter. He was for 25% of his tenure, and the other 75% was nothing but agony, frustration and resentment. Nobody wanted it to end that way, but it did.

And if he has an ace-like resurgence across town, fans are more likely to be enraged than happy.