Twelve days later, Luis Severino was better equipped to address his future.
His left oblique is feeling better, the Yankees right-hander said, even if sneezes and coughs have become dreaded and painful.
Severino’s season is over, but he is confident there will be no carryover and he will be healthy for next spring training — wherever that may be as he heads into free agency.
After he threw a pitch on Sept. 8 and felt as if “somebody shot me,” he said, Severino was emotional. He struggled through pain and fought back tears during a media session, grasping the sudden end of his season and perhaps his Yankees career, after the high-grade left oblique strain.
On Wednesday, the longest-tenured major league Yankee acknowledged there is a “large chance” he has thrown his final pitch for the organization that signed him in 2011 out of the Dominican Republic.
“What can I say? There’s a large chance it could happen,” Severino said of the thought his days in pinstripes are over. “I don’t know what the future’s going to bring to me.”
Luis Severino knows his future with the Yankees is in doubt this offseason. Getty ImagesThe 29-year-old will be a high-upside free agent with a history of dominant pitching and a history of injuries.
He debuted in 2015, replacing the injured Michael Pineda for a club Joe Girardi managed.
He broke through in 2017, when he finished third in AL Cy Young voting and emerged as the Yankees’ ace. He was an All-Star for a second time in 2018, when he posted a 3.39 ERA.
Then, the setbacks began.
A series of injuries to his shoulder and elbow, culminating with Tommy John surgery in 2020, limited him to 18 total innings from 2019-21.
Last year, he posted a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts, but a lat strain cost him more than two months of the season.
This season has been the strangest, beginning with another lat strain. Severino returned from that in May and eventually said he felt like the “worst pitcher in the game” as his struggles mounted.
He had begun to turn around his nightmare season, with a 2.49 ERA in his last four starts, before the oblique injury, which forced Severino to consider his future and past.
“I’ve given my 100 percent every day,” Severino said of his time in The Bronx before the Yankees’ 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays. “I’ve had a lot of injuries here, but I’ve enjoyed being a Yankee, loved being a Yankee.
“If I had to choose my career again, I would always choose being a Yankee.”
JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POSTHe said he has not talked with the Yankees about an extension, which means he will be able to choose the next part of his career, but he “of course” would want to return.
A reunion, though, seems unlikely for a team that has given major money to Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon, will bring back Nestor Cortes and has seen the emergence of Clarke Schmidt and Michael King, as well as tantalizing moments from young pitchers such as Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito.
If this is the end, Severino said, “I’ve loved it.”







