NYY News: Sevy lands on the shelf

Mar 26, 2023 - 9:00 AM

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CBS Sports | Matt Snyder: Yesterday, we learned that Luis Severino had suffered a low-grade lat strain that will likely land him on the IL to start the season. He will join Carlos Rodón and Frankie Montas on the shelf as the Yankees will be without three-fifths of their projected starting rotation on Opening Day. (Jhony Brito is seen as a possible candidate to fill in.)

This marks the fourth season in the last five years that Severino will miss the start of the campaign to injury, having appeared in just seven games from 2019 through 2021 thanks to Tommy John surgery, shoulder, and groin injuries. A low-grade lat strain caused him to miss two months last season, though team officials maintain that this instance is a less severe injury in a different spot. He made 19 starts in 2022, going 7-3 with a 3.18 ERA (123 ERA+), 3.70 FIP, 112 strikeouts and 1.4 fWAR in 102 innings.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Yankees top prospect Anthony Volpe has made himself the talk of the town, tearing it up this spring with three home runs and a 1.064 OPS including falling a home run shy of the cycle in the Yankees’ 8-3 victory over the Phillies. He’s done everything he can to win the starting shortstop job on Opening Day, and in anticipation of that possibility, Hoch sat down with the 21 year old to learn about the New Jersey native. They touched on a range of topics from the lessons Volpe has learned from Willie Randolph this spring to origins of his Yankees fandom.

NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: Yesterday, we relayed that Jimmy Cordero was all but certain to make the Yankees bullpen out of camp, and this leaves the team with two other openings to fill. Albert Abreu is out of minor league options so figures to be a lock despite his shaky spring outings. Ian Hamilton has been the most impressive non-roster candidate with a 0.00 ERA in six appearances, while Greg Weissert and Matt Krook are on the 40-man roster and are certainly in the mix for a call-up.

FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: FanGraphs is conducting its annual preseason positional rankings and right field is on the docket today. To the surprise of no one, Aaron Judge tops the rankings list. Interestingly, Jaffe believes the Astros’ Kyle Tucker will produce the same amount of value (5.4 fWAR) as the Yankees captain; however, Yankees right fielders as a whole are projected to be more value than the cast Houston has for the position. If you’re wondering why Jaffe appears low on Judge, it’s because this right field ranking does not capture the value he is projected to produce playing center field and from the DH spot.

Houston Chronicle | Michael Shapiro: Reggie Jackson left his role as a long-time advisor for the Yankees to take a similar role for the Astros in 2021 and has now opened up on his departure from his former employers. In excerpts from the upcoming Prime Video documentary “Reggie,” Mr. October relays that he felt “like a hood ornament” as an advisor for the Yankees whereas he feels more like he’s “part of the mix... part of the decision-making process” in Houston (which, we should say, just had its own front office turmoil). He comes off as particularly bitter recounting his final years in New York:

“Probably seven years or so after [former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s death] I really couldn’t get heard. Analytics were taking over and I was struggling to leave the content I had with the players coming through, and with the organization... I spoke out too much. I spoke my mind too much. I wasn’t just glad to be there.”