Yankees hope mechanical tweak can unlock Luis Severino

Luis Severino began the season frustrated. The right-hander was upset with the Yankees for slow-playing his rehab from a lat injury he sustained during spring training that kept him on the injured list until late May.

Entering the All-Star break, Severino and the Yanks were frustrated for a different reason: A 7.38 ERA through his first nine starts to the season. But as the 29-year-old makes his first start of the second half on Monday night at the Los Angeles Angels, there is hope that the second act of Severino's 2023 campaign will not be a repeat of his first.

“Hopefully, [the break] has been a good thing,” manager Aaron Boone said ahead of Sunday's defeat. "Again, he’s healthy and the stuff is all there. So it’s about execution. Hopefully, the sides and the practice, everything, some little adjustments in the delivery will get him to that next level.”

And adjustments were needed as in his last two starts before the four-day break, he allowed 16 runs (14 earned) in 6.2 innings against a woeful St. Louis club and a strong Baltimore outfit.

"I'm not doing my job right now," Severino said after his last start on July 6.

In the intervening fortnight, he worked with Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, who told the New York Daily News that work was done during the break to "dial in the delivery a little bit" but added, "It’s always a work in progress when you’re talking about the delivery."

“I feel like sometimes he gets maybe a little bit rotational and quick with the front side," Blake told the Daily News' Gary Phillips, "and that kind of impacts some of his command and some of the sharpness of his secondary [pitches], so just kind of getting him to control his lines a little bit better, stay in his back leg a little better. That was kind of like the first piece of it, and that’s gonna take a little bit of time to iron out."

Blake added that there are some adjustments are smaller than others, but these tweaks are "something he can take into the game right away."

"Now, whether he repeats it for 100 pitches, that’s always [something] you’ll look to see when the game starts and the game speed picks up. But it’s something that he’s done in the past, and we’re just trying to get him back to staying sideways a little longer," the pitching coach said.

During Severinio's recent bullpen work, they worked on the shape of his breaking ball. In 2023, his slider has gone from one of his best pitches to his worst. Opponents have a .337 expected average and a .578 expected slugging percentage off the 111 sliders this year, per Statcast. Those numbers are up significantly from a .150 expected average and a .252 expected slugging on 338 sliders last year.

“It’s a lot of little things that we’re just trying to chip away at,” Blake told Phillips.

Severino, who will be a free agent at the end of this season, has surrendered 40 runs (35 earned) on 58 hits in 42.2 innings so far. He's allowed 11 home runs and walked 19 batters with just 37 strikeouts. And his WHIP has ballooned to 1.805 after he posted a 1.000 in 102.0 innings a year ago.

The advanced stats paint an even bleaker picture: bottom 16 percent in strikeout rate, bottom 11 percent in whiff percentage, bottom 6 percent in the league in hard hit percentage, bottom 4 percent in expected slugging percentage, and bottom 2 percent in expected batting average.

But sending Severino to the minors to work on things is "not on the table for us right now," Boone said.

“You’re looking at a guy that is healthy and throwing well and is Luis Severino,” the manager added. “It’s not like, ‘Where’s the power? Where’s the stuff?’ It’s about tightening it up, adding some deception and then making some small adjustments that hopefully allow him to be consistent in his execution because that’s what it comes down to.”

The pitching coach projected confidence that with Severino in a good space mentally, he can see his way out of the rut.

"Obviously, he’s looking for some answers,” Blake said. “I think he’s obviously questioning things about what he’s been doing and what he needs to do differently. The nice thing with a guy like this is he has a track record of success that we can lean on and say, ‘OK, what have you done when it’s going well, and what are you currently doing? And let’s try and just check these boxes as we go and try and eliminate as many of the differences as possible.’”