Luis Severino not Pleased With Yankees After Rehab Delay

Luis Severino is not happy with the Yankees' decision to slow down his rehab.

Not a happy camper.

Luis Severino is clearly frustrated with the Yankees' decision to slow down his rehab process. 

Severino was initially supposed to begin a rehab assignment on Friday, but the Yankees altered this plan to have him throw a sim game instead.

“I think it was unnecessary not to throw in Low-A, but I do whatever they tell me to do,” Severino told reporters on Sunday morning at Tropicana Field. “But I feel good.”

Severino has been on the injured list since the final week of Spring Training with a strained lat muscle. 

He initially hoped to just miss three or four starts, but if all goes according to plan that number will be closer to nine or 10 by the end of May.

According to manager Aaron Boone, the Yankees opted to have Severino throw another sim game in order to have him in a more controllable environment. 

When asked if the Yankees explained why they chose to have him throw another sim game, Severino said smiling, “They tried to, but whatever.”

“At the end, if I’m the only one who wants something and they don’t agree with that, they’re not going to let me do something,” Severino said. “But hopefully, for now on, they trust me more and try to let me compete more.”

Right now, the plan is to have Severino start his rehab assignment on Wednesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. However, the righty prefers to pitch on Thursday due to an early start on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. that would require him to stay the night in Scranton or wake up early and drive. 

Severino is hoping to just have to throw two rehab starts before rejoining the Yankees. Boone says that will be the minimum starts he has to make.

The righty threw 40 pitches in his last sim game, which puts him in line to throw around 50 pitches in his first rehab start. 

Severino believes that a rehab start would have been more beneficial than a sim game, so he can face players close to the major leagues and get re-acclimated with the pitch clock. 

Because of his extensive injury history, Boone says this played a factor in the Yankees' plan to be cautious with Severino in his rehab. 

Severino missed two months last season with a strained lat as well. 

“But it’s also an approach of building starting pitchers up conservatively and understanding that those pitches, whether it’s between 40 and 60 and 70, are the times you gotta be mindful,” Boone said. “When you make big jumps, history will tell you those are the times that pitchers can be a little more vulnerable to injuries.

“The bottom line is we want a healthy Luis Severino back in our rotation impacting us. We’re all looking forward to that.”

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