Yankees coach heaps praise on Luis Severino’s progress back from Tommy John surgery

TAMPA — Luis Severino has had a smooth return to the mound. Described as comfortable, aggressive and without apprehension, the Yankees right-hander bounced back nicely from his first time on the mound on Tuesday and went back to his second bullpen on Friday.

Yankees bullpen coach Mike Harkey was impressed with Severino’s confidence in letting it go.

“I’ve seen a lot of first-time bullpens after Tommy John and watching Sevy’s is probably the most comfortable I’ve ever seen a player throwing his bullpen, and probably the most aggressive I’ve seen a player,” Harkey said. “I mean, it looked like he had zero apprehension, or zero worry about whether his surgically repaired elbow was sound. That for me was probably the biggest thing. He’s still probably looking at 20-30 more bullpens and a lot more live batting practices and then a game, so he’s still a long way away, but very encouraging.”

Severino, who missed most of 2019 with a torn lat muscle, was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in February of 2020. The right-hander, who is 42-26 with a 3.46 ERA over 88 big league starts, has struck 589 over 530 innings pitched in his career. He is in the third year of a four-year extension signed in the spring of 2019.

He is expected back mid-season and could be a huge boost to the Yankees’ rotation. Harkey thinks there will be an even stronger and smarter Severino when he does return. Severino has spent so much time rehabbing over the last two years that he has time to refine his body and pitches.

“It’s all because of hard work. I mean he’s worked his tail off to get to this point,” Harkey said. “Having been through a series of serious injuries and rehabbing for months in a year, it takes a toll on your mind, and definitely takes a toll on your body,” he said. (Harkey had season-ending shoulder and knee injuries as a pitcher with the Cubs in 1991 and 1992.) “But it also gives you a chance that if you dig into it, you can do things now to your body that you weren’t able to do when you were healthy because you have that extra time and I think when he does come back. I think he’s going to be much stronger.”

OUCH!!

Darren O’Day got an uncomfortable strikeout of Tony Wolters in the Yankees 7-5 win over the Pirates at George M. Steinbrenner Field Saturday. With two strikes, the side-armer went inside on the catcher, who swung and the ball hit the bottom of the bat, ricocheting into Wolters’ groin.

“I was happy because, you know, I got strikeout, but for a second, so I was gonna call the ball,” O’Day said. “I don’t know it’s the umpire saw it, but you know what, it’s a hard game, really.”

It brought back a memory for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who he said he suffered a strikeout like that back in his playing days.

“Look when you’re a good pitcher and you have a unique angle like that, sometimes you get some funny swings,” Boone said with a laugh. “I thought Darren threw the ball really well today. He gave up the home run on probably a pitch he wouldn’t have thrown necessarily in that situation. But I think he wanted to make sure he makes that pitch in. Otherwise I thought he was really sharp working at both the top and the bottom of the zone really having a good feel for his backdooring the slider. I thought it was a good sharp day for him.

“But yeah, sometimes when you have good stuff and it’s a unique angle, you can have a funny one from time to time.”

O’Day gave up a homer to Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds and then struck out three in an inning of work.

KLUBOT

Corey Kluber allowed two runs on four hits, including a home run, in four innings. He struck out two and hit two batters.

“That was good. Overall, I’m happy with the way I felt physically happy where the stuff was at. Maybe some pitches probably could look a little better, could have been a little sharper,” Kluber said. “The home run first pitch kind of left a little bit too much over the plate. Obviously, I hit a couple guys, trying to get it in there deep where we wanted to, obviously not trying to hit them. So just kind of fine tuning that sort of stuff.”

The two-time Cy Young winner’s results aren’t all that important in spring training. The fact that the 34-year-old is bouncing back quickly and feeling healthy is the only thing the Yankees are concerned with. Kluber’s rehab from the tear in a small muscle in his shoulder had him in better shape coming into spring training than in the past.

“Knock on wood, everything’s been good so far. I think that coming into this this spring, just because of the way that the timing of my throwing rehab played out, I was probably a little bit further ahead of where I normally am coming into spring,” Kluber said. “My guess is maybe because of that I’ve bounced back a little bit better than I typically do in spring training.”