It’s funny to me how one injury-plagued season has totally changed the world’s perception of New York Yankees starter, Luis Severino. I have seen a lot of people compare the best rotations in baseball, and they talk about Severino as if he was a middle of the rotation kind of arm. Let’s rewind to his previous two seasons before his injury season of 2019. Combining his stats from 2017 and 2018, Luis Severino had a record of 33-14 with a 3.17 ERA (Baseball-Reference). In both of those seasons, he finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting for the American League. Luis Severino when healthy is an ace, and he is going to continue to get better.
Last year was a bump in the road for Sevy where injuries caused him to only make three starts where he went 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA. There is an expectation that Severino is going to be fully healthy going into 2020 and I fully expect his numbers to be on par with his 2017 and 2018 seasons. However, there is something, better yet, someone who will assist in taking Severino to the next level in 2020. That someone is Gerrit Cole.
Cole’s Impact on Severino
In the past few seasons, there was a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Luis Severino to become the pure ace of the Yankee staff. While he has the stuff to do it, I’m not sure New York Yankees fans ever looked at him the way they are already looking at Gerrit Cole. Now, Severino doesn’t have to be the ace of the staff for the Yankees with Gerrit Cole on the team. The pressure of an ace now belongs on the shoulders of Gerrit Cole. How can this benefit Severino?
Luis Severino can go into 2020 loose knowing he doesn’t have to be the ace coming off of an injury season. He can relax and focus on getting his mechanics sharpened. I also expect new pitching Coach Matt Blake to play a key role in Severino’s development this season. But, I also expect the new ace of the staff to play the biggest role in Severino making another jump forward. Gerrit Cole is a natural leader and he loves to share knowledge. He also shares a lot of similarities with the flame thrower from the Dominican Republic and I think he will be able to see that. Both righties have explosive fastballs with knee-buckling off-speed pitches.
While Sevy seems to stick to the fastball-slider-changeup pitch mix, Cole features four to five pitches, but they do share a similar mix. I think it is going to do absolute wonders for Severino to learn from a similar pitcher who is at the top of the sport. Gerrit Cole is coming from a situation in Houston where he was part of arguably the best 1-2 pitching punch in baseball. If both guys stay healthy, I think the same could be said for the 1-2 punch he will be a part of in 2020.
Let’s Get Bold
I personally think that Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino will make up the most dominant 1-2 punch in baseball over the next five seasons. Yes, Washington has Scherzer and Strasburg, but Scherzer is continuing to age and Strasburg’s health is always in question. I think Severino is going to continue to get better, and I think Gerrit Cole still has room to get better as a pitcher. I think having each other will bring out a little healthy competition and we will see both guys improve over the next several years. The Yankees might very well have two pitchers who will be fixtures in the top 5 of Cy Young voting for the next five years. That only bodes well for the New York Yankees and their dreams of getting to 30 championships as Gerrit Cole alluded to following his Yankees introduction.