Well we’ve come to hope for the best but expect the worst after watching the Yankees last year. That’s why the news of Sevy being sidelined frightened every Yankee fan down to their core. Today we were finally given the heart wrenching news after a dye contrast MRI showed a partial tear in Severino’s UCL. The worst possible news that could have come from all these tests. Almost exactly a year ago he signed a 4 year $40 million year extension with the Yankees having only pitched a total of 12 innings since then. Severino was regarded as one of the best pitchers in baseball at the time, so that deal was definitely seemed like a win for the Yankees. We aren’t sure when the surgery will happen or who will preform it, but Cashman told reporters today that when he finds out that information he will relay it along.
As we were told this injury dates back to Severino throwing game three against the Astros in the ALCS. With that said, Severino would have been scheduled to start that game seven if the Yankees were able to win game six. There will be a lot of talk about if the medical staff should have cleared Severino to start that possible game 7. I’m not sure if he received an MRI after that game that would have reveled anything or Sevy was feeling pain and the Yankees staff left it on him to decide if he wanted to pitch anyway. As an athlete and a gamer, I would tell you that if I were in his shoes I would have gone out there and done anything I could have done to allow my team to win. Even if my UCL snapped on the spot. If my team was able to advance to the World Series then it would have been worth it. I’d like to think that most athletes are the same in that regard. With that being said, MLB clubs have millions of dollars invested in their athletes and I would hope that they wouldn’t put any athlete in knowing risk of getting hurt. On one hand you have the guy that’s willing to do whatever it takes to win, so it become so hard to say no to that guy. But on the other hand there are people who get paid a lot of money to make these types of decisions to protect their players. By no means is that an easy decision. Ultimately, the Yankees never made it to game seven, so no decision ever had to be made. But the most frustrating part about this situation is that Severino received multiple tests after the season that apparently showed nothing wrong. If Sevy were to receive TJ right after the season he may have been able to return during this years postseason but I would assume he would have still missed the 2020 season. My best guess is that the MRI’s after the season showed a very slight tear in his UCL and Sevy and the Yankees had to figure out a game plan. He could either get the surgery, or because it was such a small tear, he could rehab and rest as much as he could before the season. It’s a really tough decision, either you miss another season or take a chance that this small tear could be helped with extensive rehab. It could have very well been that the tear was so small it couldn’t be seen on previous MRI’s but after throwing again it increased in size.
Where does that leave the Yankees now? A current top three rotation of Cole, Happ, and Tanaka, with a a 4th and 5th starter still in question. Does this suck completely? yes. The Yankees lose that one-two punch the Astros had last year with Cole and Verlander or the Nationals with Scherzer and Strasburg. Two teams that made it to the World Series. The Yankees won over a hundred games last season with no Severino and with 30 players landing on the IL at some point. The addition of Cole with a healthy Severino and Paxton was seen that push to get them over that ALCS hump and into the World Series. That path becomes a little less clear at the moment. While Cole will make up for some of that slack, one man can’t take on the loss of two big starters. We can only hope that Paxton has a quick recovery in order to step into that one-two spot replacing Sevy. We would be getting Paxton and German around the same time, hopefully a German that had the type of success he had in the first half of 2019. This is all going magnify all the starts from not only Happ, but the number of young players that are fighting for rotation spots. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a trade somewhere in the future, go work some magic Cashman. Meanwhile, Yankee fans can still breath. This is hard blow but not the end of the world. And I really feel for Sevy too. I know the guy just wants to go out there and compete at 100%. We all know the types of performances he can have when he’s fully healthy. Here’s to a speedy recovery big guy. Someone listen to Hubbs and keep Cole safe at all costs.
The Washed Up Athlete 