ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There’s some good news at last on the injury front for the Yankees.
Though, for the moment, that should be taken with a grain of salt.
Luis Severino threw a three-inning simulated game Friday morning in Tampa, a session that received positive reviews but also was held at a closed Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, away from the prying eyes of the media, who might have been able to watch had it taken place at the usual location for such things, the team’s minor-league complex.
“I heard everything went well,” Aaron Boone said Friday before the Yankees opened a three-game series against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
Severino started the season on the injured list with the right lat strain he suffered midway through spring training. Boone said last weekend that he would start a rehab assignment either this past Wednesday or Thursday with Low-A Tampa. But the Yankees scrapped that plan mid-week, choosing to go with the more “controllable environment” that comes with a simulated game.
Boone said Severino should begin a rehab assignment next Friday with either Double-A Somerset or Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Severino threw 40 pitches Friday, meaning he likely will need at least three rehab starts, and probably more, to get built back up as a starter. A best-case scenario would be a return by early June. But that assumes no setbacks, something that can’t be guaranteed for any player, Severino in particular.
He has been cursed by injuries almost from the time he signed a four-year, $40-million extension early in spring training 2019. Since then, he is 9-4 with a 2.85 ERA in 26 games (22 starts). There have been setbacks during this rehab process, too, as one initial prognosis in March called for Severino to perhaps miss a small handful of starts in April, something that long ago went by the wayside.
Severino is part of a rotation that was missing key pieces entering the season.
Frankie Montas, the…
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