Luis Severino Details Shoulder Injury; How Concerned Should Yankees Be?

Severino lasted just two innings in Wednesday's win over the Reds, taking himself out of the game with right shoulder tightness.

NEW YORK — As soon as Luis Severino woke up on Wednesday morning, hours before he was scheduled to make his 16th start of the season, the Yankees starter knew something wasn't right.

The right-hander felt tightness in his shoulder and as much as he hoped the feeling would go away throughout the day, as he got loose leading up to first pitch, it never did.

That's why after two innings of work against the Reds under the lights in the Bronx, Severino pulled the plug, halting his warmup pitches before the bottom of the third to walk off the field, exiting with right shoulder tightness. 

He'll undergo an MRI on Thursday as the Yankees cross their fingers, hoping for the best.

"After the second inning when I was warming up, it was getting worse," Severino said after Wednesday's extra-innings victory over Cincinnati. "I told myself, before something even bigger happens, stop it right here. Hopefully, it's not something that will take too much time."

As much as Severino abruptly departed Wednesday night's game, his status didn't come as a shock to manager Aaron Boone and the coaching staff. They had an eye on the right-hander since the beginning of the game, seeing a significant dip in his velocity.

For a pitcher that usually has an electric fastball, even with his injury history, it was a billowing red flag to see Severino averaging just 94.1 mph on his heater (two ticks lower than his season average).

"I noticed it from the get-go," Boone said after the win. "It was a little alarming or at least got our attention, I should say, but sometimes, he can do that as he's kind of finding his way through that first inning. So we were obviously paying attention to it and aware of it."

Luis Severino exits prior to the third inning pic.twitter.com/JIeHwAk5iK

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 13, 2022

After Severino allowed three consecutive home runs with nobody out in the second, Boone and a member of New York's training staff paid the hurler a visit. Boone said he wanted to look Severino in the eye and make sure he was okay, seeing if his lack of velo was a conscious decision as he found his rhythm or a sign of an injury.

"He said he felt really good," Boone recalled. "At the end of the second inning, he struck out [Brandon] Drury, got the top of the lineup out again and it looked like, 'oh, there it is, he's loosened up a little bit.' And then obviously, when he went out [for the third], there was enough there for him to pull the chute on it. I'm glad he did."

Severino's fastest pitch of the night was to Drury, striking him out swinging on a high fastball at 96.3 mph. He hit the same number on the radar gun the previous pitch as well. The 28-year-old later admitted that those fastballs in the second were a last-ditch attempt to get loose, high-effort offerings that probably contributed to why he left the game in the following frame. 

It wasn't soreness, pain or fatigue. It was just unwavering tightness.

"In the last inning I was trying to throw anything that I had in my arm out there," Severino explained. "I think maybe because of that, the next inning was not doing that great. I feel like if I would have gone nine innings and pushed it harder, it was going to be even worse. So that's why I stopped it right there."

Severino has a lengthy injury history over the last few seasons. He missed all of the 2020 campaign after Tommy John surgery, pitching just three times in 2019 before being sidelined with rotator cuff inflammation and a lat strain. Last year, as he worked back from elbow surgery, Severino experienced shoulder tightness, a setback that delayed his return to the Bronx. 

Luis Severino woke up this morning feeling a little tight, and never loosened up as the day progressed. The Yankees pitcher provides an update on how he's feeling after leaving his start early. #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/jhEEqKR6ZI

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) July 14, 2022

Standing in the clubhouse hours after he exited the game on Wednesday, Severino assured that he no longer felt any tightness in his arm and that what he felt on the mound earlier was nothing compared to what he experienced last summer in his shoulder. He hopes to make his next start once the Yankees return from the All-Star break.

Still, it's hard not to be concerned. Severino has already thrown 86 innings this year, almost five times as many as he threw from 2019 to 2021. If there was ever a reason to decrease his work load and give him a breather, making sure he can save some bullets for the postseason, it's this injury scare.

"He was trying to push through it and then just said he couldn't go any more, couldn't let it loose," DJ LeMahieu said. "Hopefully he doesn't miss too many starts, if any."

If he does need to miss time, depending on his MRI and how he feels on Thursday, right-hander Domingo Germán could be pulled from his rehab assignment to help fill in at the big-league level. 

Germán is tentatively scheduled to make one last rehab appearance with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday as he works back from his own shoulder injury (he's been on the 60-day injured list all year with right shoulder impingement syndrome).

"We'll start to have those conversations, try and get our arms around what we have with Sevy and then we'll go from there," Boone said.

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