Move Severino to bullpen, put Florial in leftfield after All-Star break
Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees leaves a game against the Baltimore Orioles in the third inning at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
When the Yankees reconvene next week after the All-Star break, Luis Severino needs to be in the bullpen.
And Estevan Florial needs to be in leftfield.
It may seem odd to talk about leftfield after Severino was rocked for 10 hits and seven runs in 2 2/3 innings in the Yankees’ ghastly 14-1 loss to the Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night.
But the Severino problem, as vexing as it is to the Yankees, is not complicated. You can’t keep starting a guy with a 7.38 ERA who has given up 58 hits and 11 home runs in 42 2/3 innings.
Carlos Rodon is making his Yankees debut on Friday. He can join Gerrit Cole, Domingo German, Clarke Schmidt and Randy Vasquez in the post-All-Star break rotation while Severino tries to figure it out in the pen.
The Yankees sent Vasquez down to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday immediately after he started and threw five shutout innings against Baltimore. The rookie has a 1.17 ERA in three spot starts. Give him a shot. He can hardly be worse than Severino.
Leftfield has been such a sinkhole for the Yankees all season that the YES Network on Thursday felt compelled to show a montage of misplays at the position in the first three games of this series against Baltimore.
Oswaldo Cabrera on Monday. Isiah Kiner-Falefa on Tuesday. Jake Bauers on Wednesday.
And as if on cue, right after that Kiner-Falefa – who is NOT AN OUTFIELDER – took a bad route to a ball smoked over his head against Severino in the Orioles’ seven-run, eight-hit third inning.
None of the plays YES showed were easy. But the home team network showed them for a reason – the Yankees are getting subpar play in left.
The Yankees started the season without a leftfielder and still don’t have one on July 7. Here are the players who have started out there: Greg Allen, Bauers, Cabrera, Willie Calhoun, Franchy Cordero, Aaron Hicks, Kiner-Falefa, Billy McKinney and Giancarlo Stanton.
Meanwhile, Florial -- who was once the Yankees’ top prospect -- hit his 21st home run for Scranton on Thursday. He had never hit more than 17 in a full season.
The 25-year-old lefthanded hitter is batting .295 with 50 RBIs and a .992 OPS. He also has 18 stolen bases. A centerfielder by trade, he could at least improve the Yankees’ leftfield defense if nothing else.
Florial is also, to be fair, a fallen prospect. He made this season’s Opening Day roster, but was designated for assignment after one game, a game in which he did not appear.
Florial was removed from the 40-man roster and had to go through waivers. Not one of the other 29 teams claimed him.
That’s telling.
But that’s also before Florial shook off the stigma of being shown that no big-league team wanted him as free talent. Maybe, as one Twitter (not Threads) commenter named Vince wrote to me on Thursday night, that "lit a fire" under Florial.
Florial is having a half-season that should cause some general managers to wonder if they made the wrong call when they passed him over.
Is Brian Cashman one of those GMs? Doesn’t seem like it. Because Cashman can snap his fingers and have Florial in the Bronx by Friday if he wants. Or when the second half opens on July 14 at Colorado. Cashman can choose to give the youngster a good run in left to see if there’s anything there before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Florial has had cups of coffee with the Yankees in each of the last four seasons. If you call one game in 2020, 11 in 2021, 17 in 2022 and that Opening Day-only roster spot as cups of coffee. More like sips.
He has not impressed. In 30 games, Florial has hit .185 with one home run and 21 strikeouts in 63 plate appearances.
The playing time has been so sporadic it’s hard to call it definitive. It’s also entirely possible Florial is never going to be a big-league player, that he’s what they call “4-A” – too good for Triple-A, but not good enough for the majors.
Still, wouldn’t you want to find out if you’re the Yankees? Other than Kiner-Falefa's scoreless ninth inning in his fourth pitching appearance of the season, it could be the only good thing to come from Thursday night’s debacle in the Bronx.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
