Yankees starter Luis Severino had a rough outing on Wednesday night, but there could be concern that it is a bigger issue.
The righty left Wednesday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds after two innings with right shoulder tightness, the team announced in the fourth inning. He was examined by Dr. Christopher Ahmad and will undergo an MRI on Thursday.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that that the first sign that something could be wrong was Severino’s velocity on his pitches.
“When I talked to him after the first inning he was just like a little leary of letting it go,” Boone said. “He kept saying ‘I’m feeling really good,’ but something was telling him to hold back a little bit. That was the biggest thing. And sometimes he can be that way a little bit early where he’ll kind of ease into a little bit, and I think in his mind with his injury history he gets a little cautious.”
Severino had a tough start to the game giving up a run in the first and then allowing three consecutive home runs in the second as the Yankees’ deficit grew to four runs. The Yankees coaching staff and trainer came out to speak with Severino after Stuart Fairchild’s home run in the second.
Severino was able to get out of the inning when he got Tommy Pham to ground out. J.P. Sears came into the game in relief in the third.
“Today I woke up feeling not great,” the Yankees starter told reporters. “Like a little tight shoulder. I thought going through warmups, doing all my stuff, it would get looser, but in the bullpen, it stayed the same. The game, it started getting tighter mining by inning.”
Severino said that he wasn’t too concerned, despite his injury history. He had undergone Tommy John Surgery in 2020.
The Yankees are waiting to see what the MRI reveals on Severino before they start to plan what comes next for their rotation. Boone tried to temper any thoughts that Severino’s injury would impact the organization’s plan for Domingo German.
Boone did admit that it was possible it could be impacted, but reiterated the desire to see where Severino’s shoulder was at first. And the Yankees skipper wanted to prevent anyone from hitting the panic button over the whole situation.
“That’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s see what we got,” Boone said. “Certainly don’t like seeing him come out and obviously that. You kind of hope for the best tomorrow, but at least on the exam there was no alarming things, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves too.”
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The Yankees starter allowed four hits and four runs, while striking out one batter. Severino had won his last start in Pittsburgh and entered Wednesday’s game nine strikeouts shy of the 700th of his career.
New York won the game in extra innings 7-6.
