Manager Carlos Mendoza may not be the only former member of the Yankees who is on the Mets next season.
Starting pitcher Luis Severino could join him, The Athletic reported Friday. The Mets are interested and plan to meet with him soon as Severino has garnered interest from multiple clubs, The Athletic said.
The 29-year-old Severino has spent his entire eight-year career with the Yankees, where he developed into a front-of-the-rotation pitcher early in his career, finishing third in AL Cy Young voting in 2017 and ninth in 2018.
But injuries have dampened his effectiveness over the past four seasons as he’s pitched a total of 209 1/3 innings. Among the ailments, Severino battled shoulder and lat muscle injuries in 2019, and he had Tommy John surgery in February 2020, forcing him to miss that season and limiting him to six innings in 2022. He dealt with a lat strain in 2022, and, in 2023, his season ended, emotionally, in September because of an oblique strain.
When he was on the mound in 2023, Severino posted the worst numbers of his career: a 6.65 ERA in 89 1/3 innings. He had a career-low eight strikeouts per nine innings and yielded 113 hits. He had no answers in first innings, yielding a .375/.457/.668 line and an 11.50 ERA.
“Right now I’m willing to do anything to get better,” Severino said in August. “I’m having the worst year of my life in baseball. So I have to continue. I’m not gonna stop here. I have to try to get better.”
Why would the Mets (or any other team be interested)? Severino is not that old, still throws hard (96.4 mph average on his fastball) and is not far removed from being dominant. Perhaps a healthy offseason coupled with a new team and pitching/training staff will be beneficial for the 6-foot-2 right-hander with a career 3.79 ERA and 9.8 K/9.
The Mets only have Kodai Senga and José Quintana locked into the rotation for next season, and it’s clear president of baseball operations David Stearns will be considering all types of options.
