The New York Yankees will be without their ace for longer than they were hoping.
Luis Severino is being shut down for the next six weeks after an MRI revealed that the right-handed pitcher has a Grade 2 lat strain in his throwing arm, The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler reported Tuesday night.
Severino has been on the injured list since the beginning of the season with shoulder inflammation. The team believes the lat strain, which did not show up in the initial MRI, was suffered in the time since he injured his shoulder, Adler reported.
This obviously is not ideal for the Yankees, who have climbed back to 5-5 after a slow start out of the gates but have been riddled with injuries at the beginning of the season.
Severino had sky-high expectations coming into the season, having established himself as one of the more dominant arms in the American League — if not all of baseball. He finished third in AL Cy Young voting in 2017, is coming off a ninth-place finish in 2018.
The 25-year-old owns a 33-14 record, 3.18 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 63 starts over the past two seasons. Not to mention he inked a three-year, $40 million extension back in February.
