Education
He finished 4–2 with a 2.45 European Research Area, 53 strikeouts over 44 innings in 10 games (eight starts).
He finished 4–2 with a 2.45 European Research Area, 53 strikeouts over 44 innings in 10 games (eight starts).
He is considered the Yankees" top prospect by numerous scouts. Severino signed with the New York Yankees as an international free agent in 2012, agreeing on a $225,000 signing bonus. At the time, he could throw his fastball at 91 miles per hour (146 km/h).
He made his professional debut for the Dominican Summer League (DSL) Yankees 1 that year.
He started 2013 with the DSL Yankees 1 and was promoted to the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League during the season. His fastball velocity reached 97 miles per hour (156 km/h) at Charleston.
Prior to the 2014 season, Baseball America ranked him as the Yankees ninth best prospect. Severino started the season with Charleston before being promoted to the Tampa Yankees of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League.
After his promotion to Tampa, he was selected to appear in the 2014 All-Star Futures Game in July.
After the Futures Game, he was again promoted, to the Trenton Thunder of the Class Associate of Arts Eastern League. Before the start of the 2015 season, Severino was ranked the best prospect in the Yankees farm system and the 23rd best out of all minor league players. He received a promotion to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Class American Automobile Association International League, where he worked with RailRiders" pitching coach Scott Aldred to improve his pitching delivery.
With the Yankees in the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason race, the Yankees made Severino unavailable in trade discussions for pitchers David Price, Cole Hamels, and Johnny Cueto at the MLB trade deadline of July 31.
Though Severino set a career-high with 113 innings pitched in the 2014 season, and teams tend to slowly build their pitchers up year to year, Cashman said that Severino will not be limited in how many innings he throws over the remainder of the 2015 season, in part because they limited his innings earlier in the season. Yankees" manager Joe Girardi set Severino"s major league debut for August 5.
Severino pitched five innings in his debut, allowing two hits, two runs (one earned), with seven strikeouts and no walks, while becoming the youngest starting pitcher of the 2015 MLB season.
He started 14 games, pitching to a 4–2 win-loss record with a 1.68 earned run average (European Research Area) and 45 strikeouts in 64 1⁄3 innings. Combined between the three teams, Severino went 6–5 win-loss record with a 2.46 European Research Area, 127 strikeouts, and 27 walks in 24 games (all starts) and 113 innings pitched. Severino began the 2015 season with Trenton, where he had a 2–2 win-loss record with a 3.32 European Research Area and 48 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched across eight games started. Severino pitched to a 7–0 win-loss record and a 1.91 European Research Area in 11 games started for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre through the end of July.
