Should the Yankees Trade for Luis Severino?
- E.J. Fagan
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
By EJ Fagan
June 30, 2025
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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission. This was published before Severino's atrt yesterday.
Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.
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I have a soft spot in my heart for Luis Severino. When he was on, he was an elite pitcher. The Yankees clearly have a soft spot for him too; Aaron Boone clearly loves the guy. They let him go after a bad 2023 season, but he rebuild his value with the Mets before signing a three year, $67 million contract with the Athletics.
And now he’s unhappy about playing in a minor league ballpark with the No City Athletics.
Bob Nightengale goes as far as to say that the A’s can’t wait to dump his salary. I can’t help but notice that he chose a series in New York to make very public (but professional) comments about the ballpark.
It’s hard to blame him. Sacramento has played like a Coors Field-level bandbox this year. His ERA is 2.27 on the road and 6.79 at home. Other A’s pitchers have similar splits.
The Statcast page overall isn’t pretty, although he’s still got his fastball velocity, control and soft contact:

He’s probably getting a little unlucky at home and lucky on the road. His away xwOBA, whiff rate and barrel rate are all pretty similar to his 2024 numbers, when he was basically a league average innings eater. Maybe he plays up a little in a better environment, but the road ERA is definitely misleading.
But the Yankees could use a league average innings eater right now. Severino is just one of 12 pitchers to throw 100 innings so far. He’s in the middle of one of the healthiest stretches of his career too. He would take the 5th starter spot on the roster.
His contract is definitely a little overpriced - it had to be to convince a free agent to come to Oakland. I suspect that Oakland would have to eat a little salary to get him off their books, especially since he has a player option for 2027. The Yankees owe Marcus Stroman about $9 million for the remainder of the season.
But should the Yankees do it? It’s one of those deals that makes some sense for 2025 but probably less sense going forward. The Yankees have Fried locked up forever and Rodon and Cole through 2028. Schmidt doesn’t hit free agency until 2027. Will Warren and Luis Gil are pre-arb, not to mention Cam Schlittler. They really don’t need to go out of their way to fill out their long term rotation with someone whose upside is average innings eater. And if Luis Gil comes back healthy, they might not even have a spot for him in the rotation this year.
On the other hand, the Yankees might want a little more depth going forward. They saw how fragile even a seven-deep rotation could be this Spring. Cole won’t return until mid-2026 at the earliest, so there is plenty of time for something to go wrong. It will be hard to sign someone short-term who is as good as Severino.
Here’s where I’ll land: the Yankees should trade for Severino if (a) they can dump Stroman’s salary and not pay much in prospects (b) it won’t stop them from trading for an infielder and (c) they don’t think that Schlittler is quite ready or plan to trade him.
Are those all true? I don’t know. But the Yankees are in a knife fight with the Rays for the AL East and the Astros and Tigers for the first round bye, and Severino makes them better. Plus, he’s an old friend. They certainly should consider trading for him if he’s available.
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EDITOR'S NOTE - The SSTN writers will be responding to the idea of trading for Severino in tomorrow's Tuesday Discussion.
NO... further comment not necessary!
absolutely not, as Alan said, is the correct answer. Sevy is doing ok and I am happy for him. I was a big Sevy fan and will always root for him, but this will be another Aaron Boone "veteran" situation. they will NOT need him to start games in the postseason, but Boone would start him ahead of Warren for sure and might even consider him over Gil and Schmidt
it could also very much be a DJ situation. veterans like Judge and Stanton will stand up for Sevy even if he does not earn it on the field
we have a ton of pitchers in the minors who could be options to make the team as a #5 if…
NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!
In fact, I would not be seriously looking for a starting pitcher at all. Now, if Texas says Jacob deGrom is available, or if Zac Gallen can be included in a Suarez deal, with not crazy prospect capital added to the deal, sure I'd talk about it. The Yankees right now have 4 Starters for the playoffs. Gil will be back, and if he is Gil, that gives them 5 give guys. Plus, I have Cam Schlittler sitting there in AAA. Again, I'd send Blake or Preston Claiborne to go see him live. Or, I'd ask Pettitte to go, as he too saw him in Spring Training. Any of those guys could see just how much better…
Severino, salary relief and prospects for Brubaker/
Sevy would be a good fill-in while awaiting Gil's return
and, after that, he could serve as a long reliever
although it might be better to re-gift him to a pitching-needy team
I agree with all of this, but . . . didn't Sevy make some injudicious comments about Yankee non-Judge hitters last post-season? Would that cause clubhouse friction?