yankees reds probable pitchers
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Starting pitcher Luis Severino has yet to throw a regular-season pitch for the Yankees in 2023. He’s on the rehab trail after suffering a lat strain, though. While he voiced his displeasure about how New York is handling the situation, it’s looking like he’s close to returning to the Bombers’ rotation.

Earlier this week, we heard about how Severino wasn’t happy about throwing a simulated game on Friday instead of beginning his rehab assignment. Even worse, the Yankees made him either sleep in Scranton or deal with a long, early-morning drive for his Wednesday morning Triple-A start.

Despite his grumbling, he went out and looked good on the hill for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre:

According to Conor Faley, his fastball velocity averaged 95.9 mph and topped out at 98 mph. Sevy’s average fastball velocity after 102 regular-season innings in 2022 settled in at 96.3 mph. So, it appears his arm feels good and is close to getting back to the levels he was at last season.

More importantly, Luis Severino tossed 49 pitches during this rehab appearance. With a projected timetable to return to the Yankees sometime later this month, he’s probably got at least one more rehab start to make before coming back to the big leagues.

That’s good news for a Yankees rotation who could surely use his presence. Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes are just jim-dandy at the top, but the rest of the starting staff is a little iffy. Domingo German has looked dominant at times but has had his ups and downs. His spot is probably safe because Clarke Schmidt and Jhony Brito are more likely to be on the chopping block.

Whenever Sevy makes his next rehab start, let’s just hope the first pitch isn’t scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.

You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.

Matt Musico is an editor for ESNY. He’s been writing about baseball and the Mets for the past decade. His work has been featured on numberFire, MetsMerized Online, Bleacher Report, and Yahoo! Sports.