Mets' Luis Severino has successfully reinvented himself
Luis Severino said about being traded, "It would be really nice if I stay here.” Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
With about a month until the trade deadline, the Mets’ status remains uncertain, many variations of several approaches still feasible: Buy for a real run at a wild-card spot, sell if that doesn’t seem worth it, some of both to try to set up the near-term and long-term futures, or nothing at all.
Whatever the outcome — to be determined largely by their play on the field in the coming weeks — Luis Severino’s preference is clear. He does not want to be traded.
“I want to be here,” he told Newsday this week. “I’ve developed a routine here. I know my teammates here, the pitching coach, everybody who has been helping me. It would be really nice if I stay here.”
Severino getting buzz as a trade candidate is a testament to his turnaround season. And his turnaround season is a testament to the work he has put in and the changes that he has made — to his mindset, to his repertoire, to his career.
Heading into his start Sunday against the Astros, which will mark the halfway point of the Mets’ season, game No. 81 of 162, Severino leads the rotation in ERA (3.29), WHIP (1.13) and innings (90 1/3). And his health has been practically perfect, the righthander taking each of his 15 turns without issue. In a relatively weak field, Severino may well be the Mets’ All-Star representative next month.
That is something close to the best-case scenario imagined when the Mets signed him to a one-year, $13 million deal early last offseason. Previously a lifetime Yankee, Severino endured a miserable 2023, injured at the beginning and end of the season and wildly ineffective in between. Nothing he tried worked.
And so he did some mound-related soul searching. To rejuvenate his career, he needed to reinvent himself.
“I wish that I didn’t get to this point, having a bad year to get to this point,” Severino, 30, said. “I wish I would’ve said, 'Oh, let me try to get better in this situation the year before that.' But I learned from my mistake. I said, let me get something going, something that will help me. And I did it. It’s working right now. This year, I’m not going to wait until I have a bad year (stretch). So I’m going to keep bettering myself, keep getting better.”
Among the changes: Severino stopped obsessing with strikeouts. Sure, they are sexy. But getting outs of any sort is more important.
He has fanned more than seven in a game just once this year, collecting 10 last weekend against the Cubs — after which he admitted with a laugh that, yes, he was sort of going for that, this one time.
“Complete control of the game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said that night.
Another big shift from Severino: The sinker, which was a pitch he never really threw before beginning to experiment with it toward the end of last season, has become his new go-to.
Last August, he threw the sinker just 4% of the time. He has upped that each in-season month since, including in June all the way up to 37% — the sinker used more frequently than any other pitch, even his four-seam fastball.
He has leaned on it because the pitch comes naturally to him, he said. He can locate it basically wherever he wants, which he views as the most important variable.
“98 (mph) inside is always a great pitch,” Severino said with a smile. “That tells me it’s working. I command it really good.
“I was just looking for a pitch that could go in. That’s why I developed a sinker and also a cutter to lefties. So when I throw a sinker in, that gives me more space to throw down and away with my breaking ball. I was just looking for ways to get better. Have a hitter up there, not to be too comfortable at the plate.”
If the sinker suddenly stops working, Severino will move on to the next wrinkle. That is how this older, wiser version operates. He is open-minded, not overcomplicated.
“I’m really proud of the work I’m doing this year,” Severino said. “Hopefully I can continue it for the full year.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.