When Luis Severino signed a one-year, $13 million contract with the New York Mets in the offseason, you could say it was a leap of faith by both parties. The pitcher was banking on the team’s ability to be competitive just a few months after performing a fire sale, while the organization was betting on a hurler who had accumulated the grand total of 89.1 innings of a horrible 6.65 ERA in 2023.
It’s safe to say that the bet has paid off for both sides, which isn’t that common in competitive baseball.
Severino has been very important for the Mets, posting a 3.84 ERA in 159.1 innings of work this year. On Monday, his seven one-run innings lifted the squad to a victory over the Boston Red Sox, the fifth in a row for one of the hottest teams in baseball.
The most impressive thing about the former New York Yankees star is not the fact he has a 3.84 ERA or 136 strikeouts. We all know what he is capable of when fully healthy, and his 2023 struggles were more of an outlier and likely conditioned by an injury earlier in the season.
The element that has surprised the entire baseball world is Severino’s durability this year. After clearing 190 innings pitched in both 2017 and 2018, here are his innings totals from 2019 to 2023:
2019: 12
2020: 0
2021: 6
2022: 102
2023: 89.1
The Mets have gotten quality innings from Severino
Before Tuesday’s games, the Mets’ right-hander ranked 17th in the entire league in innings pitched with his 159.1. He is seventh in the National League. He is young and has an impressive physique, but he barely cleared 200 frames in the previous five campaigns combined.
With just six earned runs conceded in his last four outings (2.10 ERA over that span), it’s clear that Severino is peaking at the right time, too. He is pitching the best we have seen him in a while, and he is doing it at a time in which the Mets need to accumulate victories.
As of right now, Severino has to be one of the frontrunners for the National League Comeback Player of the Year award. Even Yankees fans are happy to see him back to full health and having a successful season.
