Luis Severino feels fine the morning after bullpen session

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A day later, all seemed fine with Luis Severino.

The righthander threw a scare into the Yankees earlier this week when he complained of soreness in his “whole arm,” which prompted them to scratch him from a scheduled start against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

The Yankees opted  to have Severino throw a bullpen session Wednesday afternoon and he seemed no worse for wear the morning after, Aaron Boone said Thursday after speaking with pitching coach Matt Blake and the club’s training staff.

Severino is still “in line,” Boone said, to take the mound Saturday against Atlanta in what will be his final outing before the regular season.

“[We] were kind of waiting for [how he felt] this morning,” Boone said before the Yankees' 5-3 loss to the Phillies on Thursday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark. “It’s what we hoped.”

Nothing is a given with Severino, considering he’s pitched  a total of 18 innings in seven games (three starts) since signing a four-year, $40 million extension in February 2019. He has had a variety of injuries and underwent Tommy John surgery in February 2020.

“I haven’t done this in a while,” Severino said after his bullpen session Wednesday. “I haven’t built [up] to be a starter. I haven’t pitched like, ‘This time, you have 40 pitches, next time you’ve got 65 and all that stuff.’ I’m getting used to more work, I would say. But like I said, right now I feel pretty good.”  

Thar she blows

Righthander Jameson Taillon, in his second-to-last tuneup before the regular season, took the mound Thursday  with the wind howling straight out to left. He allowed three runs and four hits in 3 2/3 innings, including a third-inning homer by Jean Segura that, without the wind, likely would have been caught in medium leftfield. The Yankees also benefited from the breeze, with Marwin Gonzalez getting a ground-rule double in the sixth that off the bat was nothing more than a soft fly to short left.

“I thought he was good,” Boone said of Taillon. “Stuff was good. That thing [the wind] was playing tricks out there but . . . I thought he was pretty sharp.”

On the team

With rosters expanding to 28 for the month of April, Boone said the only question for the Yankees is whether to take 15 or 16 pitchers out of camp. Regardless of the number, one member of the group will be swingman Michael King, Boone said.

“Sweet,” King said with a smile Thursday  upon  learning of Boone’s pregame comments about him making the roster. King allowed two runs and five hits in 2 1/3 innings Thursday.

King credited Corey Kluber, a Yankee last season, with helping him develop his curveball, a pitch that helped Kluber win two American League Cy Young Awards while with Cleveland and one that King hopes will help him stick in the big leagues this season.

“If it is a carbon copy of Corey’s, that would be electric,” King said. “But honestly, anything close to it is what I’m looking for.”