Luis Severino

Minor Leagues

Severino signed with the New York Yankees as an international free agent on December 26, 2011, agreeing on a $225,000 signing bonus. At the time, he could throw his fastball at 91 miles per hour (146 km/h). He made his professional debut for the Dominican Summer League (DSL) Yankees 1 that year. He started 14 games, pitching to a 4–2 win-loss record with a 1.68 earned run average (ERA) and 45 strikeouts in  64 ¹⁄₃ innings. He started 2013 with the DSL Yankees 1 and was promoted to the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League during the season. He finished 4–2 with a 2.45 ERA, 53 strikeouts over 44 innings in 10 games (eight starts). His fastball velocity reached 97 miles per hour (156 km/h) at Charleston.

Prior to the 2014 season, Baseball America ranked him as the Yankees ninth-best prospect. Severino started the season with Charleston before being promoted to the Tampa Yankees of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League. After his promotion to Tampa, he was selected to appear in the 2014 All-Star Futures Game in July. After the Futures Game, he was again promoted, to the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League. Combined between the three teams, Severino went 6–5 win-loss record with a 2.46 ERA, 127 strikeouts, and 27 walks in 24 games (all starts) and 113 innings pitched. Before the start of the 2015 season, Severino was ranked the best prospect in the Yankees farm system and the 23rd best out of all minor league players by MLB Pipeline. He was ranked 35th by Baseball America.

Severino began the 2015 season with Trenton, where he had a 2–2 win-loss record with a 3.32 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched across eight games started. He received a promotion to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Class AAA International League, where he worked with RailRiders' pitching coach Scott Aldred to improve his pitching delivery. Severino pitched to a 7–0 win-loss record and a 1.91 ERA in 11 games started for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre through the end of July. With the Yankees in the postseason race, the Yankees made Severino unavailable in trade discussions for pitchers David Price, Cole Hamels, and Johnny Cueto at the MLB trade deadline of July 31.

2015

With a late-July injury to Michael Pineda, and the Yankees not acquiring a starting pitcher before the trade deadline, Brian Cashman, the general manager of the Yankees, announced that Severino's next start would come in the major leagues against the Boston Red Sox, the primary rival of the Yankees, at Yankee Stadium. Though Severino set a career-high with 113 innings pitched in the 2014 season, Cashman said that Severino would not be limited in how many innings he throws over the remainder of the 2015 season, in part because they limited his innings earlier in the season.

Yankees' manager Joe Girardi set Severino's major league debut for August 5. Severino pitched five innings in his debut, allowing two hits, two runs (one earned), with seven strikeouts and no walks. At age 21, he was the youngest pitcher to make a start 2015 MLB season. Additionally, he became the first AL pitcher in MLB history to strike out seven hitters while walking none and allowing no more than two hits in their major league debut. He ended his rookie season having started 11 games, pitching  62 ¹⁄₃ innings with a 5–3 record, 2.89 ERA and 56 strikeouts.

2016

Severino began the 2016 season in the Yankees starting rotation. In a game against the Chicago White Sox on May 13, 2016, Severino left the game with an apparent injury after giving up 7 runs in 2.2 innings. The next day, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to right triceps inflammation. On May 30, 2016, he was activated from the disabled list, and optioned to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. He was called back up on July 25 and was primarily used as a reliever for the remainder of the season.

Severino finished the 2016 season with a 3–8 record and an ERA of 5.83. In his 11 starts, he went 0–8 with an 8.50 ERA and 1.78 WHIP. However, in his 11 relief appearances, he went 3–0 with a 0.39 ERA and 0.77 WHIP.

2017

Following Spring Training, Severino was named the Yankees fourth starter. On April 13, 2017, Severino struck out a career-high 11 batters in seven innings as the Yankees won 3–2 over the Tampa Bay Rays. In his following start, Severino struck out 10 batters in a career high eight innings in a 4–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. On April 26, Severino pitched seven shutout innings against the Boston Red Sox. On May 24, Severino pitched eight shutout innings against the Kansas City Royals. As of June 10, he had a 5–2 record with a 2.75 ERA. In a no-decision, he struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings against the White Sox on June 27 as the bullpen blew a lead for the sixth time in Severino's starts. Despite his strong start, Severino struggled to end the first half, allowing 16 earned runs in four starts from June 15 to July 2, for a 7.03 ERA in that span. He finished his first half on a high note though, striking out 10 batters over seven innings of three run ball against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 8, his fourth start of the season with at least 10 strikeouts. Severino was named to the American League All-Star team alongside his teammates Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Starlin Castro and Dellin Betances. In the first half of the season, he had posted a 5–4 record with a 3.54 ERA and 124 strikeouts in 106⅓ innings. His 10.50 strikeout per-9 ratio ranked in the top five of the American League.

Severino started the second half strong, first matching Chris Sale by allowing one run over seven innings in a pitcher's duel against the Red Sox. In his next start, he fired seven shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners and then allowed zero earned runs in seven innings against the Cincinnati Reds. As of July 27, Severino was tied with Max Scherzer for second-most starts (8) of at least seven innings pitched with one earned run or less in the 2017 season, behind Clayton Kershaw's 11. On August 17, 2017, Severino collected his first Major League hit off Steven Matz against the New York Mets. He collected his 11th win holding the Detroit Tigers to one earned run over 6⅔ innings with eight strikeouts on August 23. On September 3rd against the Boston Red Sox Severino struck out his 200th batter of the season, becoming the second-youngest Yankee in franchise history with 200 strikeouts in one season behind Al Downing in 1964. He struck out nine batters in six innings in that start allowing just one unearned run to improve to 12–6 with a 3.03 ERA.

Personal life

Severino is from Sabana de la Mar, in the Hato Mayor province of the Dominican Republic. He grew up a fan of the Yankees, particularly fellow Dominican Robinson Canó. He has a daughter, Abigail, who was born in July 2015.