Severino Could Be Better Than Advertised

Luis Severino made his Major League debut with an impressive repertoire that somehow caught my eye, holding Red Sox to two hits with zero walks and seven strikeouts in five innings of work in a 2-1 loss. Here is a look at Severino's pitch type classification on Aug 5, 2015:

MLB.com Prospect Watch

Scouting grades: Fastball: 70 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 60 | Control: 60 | Overall: 60

The Yankees are as aggressive as any team on the international market, regularly lavishing seven-figure bonuses on prospects, including eight times last year alone. Their best prospect is a product of those efforts, though Severino cost them only $225,000 when he signed in July 2012. His first full year in full-season ball was a wild success, as he reached Double-A, struck out Joey Gallo during the Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game and emerged as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.

Severino has a loose, quick arm that makes up for his lack of physicality. It allows him to maintain a mid-90s fastball throughout his starts and reach a peak velocity of 99 mph. When he doesn't try to overthrow his heater, it features nice sink that results in a lot of groundouts and keeps the ball in the park (just six homers allowed in 221 2/3 innings through three pro seasons). Severino's fading changeup gives him a second plus pitch, and he's not afraid to throw it. His slider is more of a work in progress but should become at least an average third offering. He's wiry strong and fills the strike zone, so he should be able to remain a starter despite lacking a prototypical build.

BA Scouting Grade


Fastball: 75.


Changeup: 70.


Slider: 50.


Control: 60.


Based on 20-80 scouting scale—where 50 represents major league average—and future projection rather than present tools.

Scouting Report: Severino’s build, fastball-changeup combo, Dominican heritage and dominance have earned him comparisons to Pedro Martinez. Short but not skinny, Severino utilizes a drop-and-drive delivery to bring his 94-97 fastball, which has above-average life. He touched 98 and 99 plenty of times throughout the course of the season as well. He couples the fastball with a changeup that features plenty of late fade. He’s confident enough to double and triple up on the pitch at times and use it to get strikeouts against both lefthanders and righthanders. His third pitch is a mid-80s slider thrown with power, which still takes a back seat to his fastball and changeup but projects as solid-average when he’s finished developing. While his size and delivery limit the amount of downward plane he can impart to his pitches, he pitches to all four quadrants of the strike zone, helping him keep the ball in the ballpark. He surrendered just three home runs on the season—one after May 25, and none at either of his stops in high Class A or Double-A. Severino presents an air of confidence in both himself and his repertoire at all times, and his demeanor helps keep him from getting flustered when breaks don’t go his way behind him.

The down side is that Severino fell behind 13 of the 18 batters he faced although he didn't issue a walk. The fastball is as good as advertised, a heater Severino can dial up to 97mph with little effort. The only concern is that his four-seam fastball only generated three swing and miss against Red Sox batters. I don't really want to interpret too much from one start, but many have mentioned that Severino's perceived velocity could fall short of what the radar gun reads due to lack of extension on his delivery. It would be interest to see how Severino's fastball fare down the road in next few starts. 

I find it difficult to believe that Severino's slider is graded as his third offering. Severino's solid outing in his debut coincided with his ability to pitch aggressively off his fastball, which helped him setting up the devastating slider, his most consistent and best all-around pitch. Contradicting to most scouting reports, Severino actually used his slider as a primary weapon on Wednesday, throwing it extremely hard. Overall, his slider operates in 88-92mph with tight cutting tilt; as an result, producing an impressive Whiff/Swing rate at 36.36%.

Slider Sign

92mph Slider

89mph Slider

90mph Slider

Most surprisingly, although it is only Severino's first outing, it seems like it is the changeup that's still being refined. Severino leaned away from his changeup and relied heavily on his fastball-slider combination, which turned out to be effective against the Red Sox. Having said that, with Michael Pineda on disable list, it's time for Severino to show the baseball world he's ready for prime time.