Yankees' Luis Severino Expected to hit IL With Lat Strain

With just five days to go until Opening Day, the Yankees have lost their No. 2 starter to a lat strain.

The injuries keep piling up in the Yankees' rotation.

As manager Aaron Boone revealed to reporters Saturday morning, starting pitcher Luis Severino is headed to the IL with a low-grade lat strain.

With Opening Day just five days away, Severino will miss the beginning of the regular season, and his current timetable is unknown. Boone indicated that he could be shut down from throwing for five-to-seven days.

Severino first felt tightness in his side in his previous spring start, where he struck out nine batters. This led to him being scratched from his final outing before it was revealed he had a lat strain.

Severino dealt with a lat strain last season, which caused him to miss a total of two months.

With Severino out, Clarke Schmidt will start Game 2 of the regular season for the Yankees.

As for Severino's replacement, all signs point to Jhony Brito, who was mentioned as a possibility. But the Yankees are still going through their options.

Brito is a 25-year-old righty, who has yet to make his big-league debut. That could soon change given the Yankees' now razor thin starting pitching depth.

The Yankees are already without Carlos Rodon (forearm strain) for the first month of the season and Frankie Montas (shoulder surgery) for a majority, if not all, of the year. This has forced them to give two spots in the rotation to Schmidt and Domingo German.

Severino has certainly dealt with his fair share of injuries over the past five seasons. Since the start of 2019, he has only appeared in a total of 26 games. He will now be out indefinitely for the Yankees to begin the 2023 season.

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