Luis Severino has formed a friendship with Pedro Martinez over the last couple of years, but the New York Yankees pitcher doesn’t see eye to eye with the former Boston Red Sox ace on at least one topic.
Martinez, who now works as a special assistant to Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, said last week on TBS’ Major League Baseball postseason coverage that Severino pitched hurt during the second half of the regular season.
“I didn’t know until I finally spoke to Severino that Severino wasn’t totally healthy, and they could not afford to stop him from pitching,” Martinez said before the Yankees’ American League Wild Card Game win over the Oakland Athletics. “So that ended up affecting the Cy Young-type of season that he was having and affecting his performance when they needed him the most.”
Martinez’s claim certainly seemed plausible, as Severino’s ERA jumped from 1.98 to 3.52 during a two-month stretch from July to September in which the 24-year-old went 5-5 with a 6.10 ERA in 12 starts. But Severino since has bounced back, and the right-hander on Sunday denied ever telling Martinez about an injury.
“I don’t know where he got that, but I didn’t say nothing about I was hurt,” Severino said, per MassLive.com. “If you hear that from Yankees staff or something like that, maybe you can believe it, but I don’t know where you get that from. Like I always say, I care about my arm and being healthy. So I’m not going to go out there and compete if I’m not healthy.”
Severino is scheduled to start Monday in Game 3 of the Yankees vs. Red Sox American League Division Series, which currently is tied 1-1 with the series shifting to New York.
