Why Yankees' handling of Luis Severino is emblematic of current state of organization

MIAMI – One rival American League talent evaluator called it “truly baffling.”

Another referred to the decision as “a cheap parlor trick.”

A member of the Yankees organization called it “amazing.”

And not in the traditional sense of the word.  

The Yankees’ use of Luis Severino in Wednesday night’s 9-2 loss to the White Sox, a going-nowhere outfit that quit on the season weeks ago but one that nonetheless took two of the three games against a team on the periphery of playoff contention, perplexed many.

Inside and outside of the Yankees organization.

The Yankees, who are five games out of the third American League wild-card,  of course have bigger issues than Severino.

But their handling of him is worth further examination, if for no other reason than it is somewhat emblematic of the current overall state of the organization. 

Severino, as everyone knows, has been a mess in 2023, a season the pitcher Wednesday night called “the worst year of my life in baseball.”

The righthander, a one-time ace-in-waiting and an All-Star in 2017 and ’18, came into Wednesday a pitcher desperate for answers and left it feeling the same.  

“I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I know what kind of pitcher I am.”

“I want to get better.”

All lines spoken by Severino, all of them more than once, after previous poor starts this season.

That is a pitcher all but crying out for help, a player who has the universal respect of his teammates and has long been known among them as one of the fiercest competitors in the clubhouse. Aaron Judge after Wednesday’s game called the righthander “a bulldog,” a description of Severino more than a few teammates – and staff – have used regarding him almost from the time of his big-league debut Aug. 5, 2015 at the age of 21.

So the agreed-upon solution, at least for one night?

Mental conditioning.

Essentially, attempting to get inside Severino’s head to convince him the second inning was different than the first.

Now, the Yankees have been desperate to fix the 29-year-old Severino, too. Them trying something, anything, different wasn’t out of line.

Still…

“Incredible,” said the first AL talent evaluator with an extensive background in big-league pitching, sarcasm oozing through his text, “that trying to trick a professional pitcher into thinking that the second inning is different than his first inning didn’t work.”

It predictably did not, backfiring as nine pitches into Severino’s outing the White Sox led 1-0 and 14 pitches in it was 3-0.

Afterward, a despondent Severino quietly said “it was a good idea,” acknowledging his first-inning troubles (a 13.85 ERA entering Wednesday).

Only there was this hard-to-miss counterpoint: He hadn’t distinguished himself in any inning, bringing a 4.15 second-inning ERA into the night, with it 8.53 in the third, 4.76 in the fourth, 7.36 in the fifth and 7.36 in the sixth. All better numbers, certainly, than the first inning, but in the end, bringing to mind the phrase “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

And, ultimately, Severino really didn’t seem to buy in, saying later of the second inning: “It’s my first inning anyways. But they’re just looking for ways to win games.”

That has never been in question with the Yankees.

But the “process” that has become such a hackneyed piece of meaningless verbiage in professional sports the last decade-plus in pursuing those wins should never be beyond reproach.     

Though not completely analogous – and the stakes were, obviously, significantly higher – Wednesday’s decision was reminiscent of Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS against the Rays in San Diego when the Yankees, with all the momentum after a Game 1 victory and having swept Cleveland in the best-of-three wild-card, went deep into the analytics think-tank.

And they ended up banana-peeling themselves by using Deivi Garcia  (claimed off waivers on Thursday by the White Sox) as a one-inning opener for J.A. Happ.  

That move, treated beforehand with unnecessary cloak-and-dagger secrecy much like Wednesday’s Severino call, perplexed more than a few in the organization, including in the clubhouse. And it was a move neither pitcher, Happ especially, was completely on-board or comfortable with (the Yankees lost that game and eventually the series).   

But the Yankees, increasingly over the years considering themselves the proverbial smartest person in the room despite lacking the results to back that up, seem to repeat some of the same mistakes.  

Meanwhile, there are comments like this from the second AL talent evaluator, one assigned to the Yankees and who has seen Severino consistently from the start of the pitcher’s career in 2012 in rookie ball.

“His arm slot is dropping, (he’s) trying to chase movement,” he said after Wednesday’s outing. “Just trying to manufacture an answer on his own.”

That’s baffling, too.

Sad, even.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.