Yankees fans, please quit asking for general manager Brian Cashman to make a blockbuster deadline deal. Why you ask? Because the best pitcher in the Minor Leagues, Luis Severino is more than ready for his Major League debut in the Bronx.
Severino, who signed a contract ($225,000 dollar signing bonus) with New York (AL) in 2012, emerged as one of baseball's best pitching prospects during his first full professional season (2014) by posting a 6-5 record, a 2.46 ERA, and 127 strikeouts (113 1/3 innings) in twenty-four starts between three levels (Single-A, Single-A Advanced, and Double-A). Besides making a name for himself, he even struck out the great Texas Rangers' prospect Joey Gallo in the 2014 All-Star Futures Game!
Since his breakout season, Severino has continued to blow hitters away with a fastball/changeup combo that is very effective due to the heater, which tops out at 99 miles per hour.
The 21-year-old started his 2015 campaign with the Trenton Thunder (Double-A) and was able to go 2-2 with a 3.32 ERA in addition to 48 whiffs in eight starts (38 innings) before earning a promotion that put him only one phone call away from being summoned to the Big Leagues.
As the ace of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Severino has absolutely dominated International League hitters (.184 batting average against) by going 7-0 with a 1.91 ERA in eleven starts. Yet no performance of the Dominican Republic native was more impressive than last night's.
The RailRiders' opponent was the Maikel Franco-less Lehigh Valley IronPigs (affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies), who had high hopes of rebounding from Severino's last performance (7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, and 7 SO) against them going into the evening. There was no rebound on Wednesday night.
After Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's Ben Gamel started the game with a lead-off home run, the "Severino Show" began in the bottom of the first with three strikeouts and continued for two more innings before trouble arose.
To begin the fourth, Iron Pigs' All-Star Tyler Henson got the party started by singling to left before Robert Refsnyder made an uncharacteristic error on a Brian Bogusevic grounder that put runners on first and second with no outs. Even more surprising than the error was what transpired later in the frame, which was two Severino wild pitches, each with a runner on third base, that plated home a total of two runs. Nevertheless the stretch of no control, MLB.com's 16th top prospect bounced back by fanning five of his last eight batters, including another instance of striking out the side in the sixth, prior to being removed after hitting Philadelphia's number eighteen prospect Aaron Altherr with a pitch.
So for the night, Luis Severino's final line was fantastic as he went six innings, gave up one hit and allowed no earned runs (three unearned) while setting a career mark of ten strikeouts and earning the win. With Wednesday's performance being proof there is nothing more for the righty to accomplish in the Minors, this journalist firmly believes the "Severino Show" needs to move on to "The Big Apple."