The future is now for the New York Yankees and Luis Severino

The future is now for the New York Yankees.

The Red Sox trotted out Henry Owens (making his major league debut) against the Yankees last night. The results were mixed.

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The Yankees will be doing the same, as they’ll send out Luis Severino, who’s ranked as the number 16 prospect by MLB.com.

Call it a baptism by fire.

With how poorly the pitching staff has fared of late, Severino is making his MLB debut under rare circumstances. The Yankees won’t admit it, but Severino might represent their best shot at earning the glories of October.

The Yankees’ offense has been historically great over the last ten games (90 runs during that stretch). However, come October, when scores of 2-1 are considered perfectly normal, the Yankees will need their starters to go at least six innings. From there, you can hand the ball over to guys like Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.

Therein lies the problem.

The Yankees’ pitching staff (the starters) have not been as good as the Yankees’ record would seem to indicate. Masahiro Tanaka has been solid enough, but not nearly as good as he is capable of. He is now 8-4, with an ERA of 3.84.

Nathan Eovaldi has also been decent. While he is 11-2, his ERA is 4.30.

CC Sabathia is 4-8, with an ERA of 5.54. Those numbers are historically bad by CC’s standards.

Ivan Nova has been good in his return from Tommy John Surgery. He is 4-3, with an ERA of 3.10. However, the first part of that sentence is more important to remember than the second part.

Michael Pineda is 9-7, with an ERA of 3.97.

All of those guys carry either poor stats, are injured (Pineda), or have huge asterisks’ by their stats.

In steps Severino, the pitcher deemed nearly untouchable by the Yankees.

While he didn’t exactly light it up at Double A, his Triple A numbers were more than enough for the Yankees to consider using him while the division is yet to be decided.

In 11 games at the Triple A level, Severino is 7-0, has 50 strikeouts, and has an ERA of 1.91.

If Severino is half as good as he was at Triple A, the Yankees will surely be pleased. For the time being, Severino will occupy Pineda’s spot in the rotation. No one knows exactly when Pineda, who was placed on the 15-day DL, will return

“We are not going to see him pitching in major league games in August,” said General Manager Brian Cashman to ESPN. “Obviously, September is when we plan to unleash him again at some point.”

As if playing in New York wasn’t enough, Severino has the big shoes (and uniform) of Pineda to fill.

But if you think that Severino is anxious or nervous about making his debut, you are sadly mistaken.

“I think he feels like he belongs here pitching and that’s not a bad place,” said Larry Rothschild to the New York Post. “I don’t think it’s arrogant. He’s confident.”

Yankees’ fans ought to take pride in knowing that Severino is already oozing with confidence. If he fails tonight, it won’t be due to a lack of confidence.

The future begins tonight.

Next: Where do the Yankees place in our MLB Power Rankings?

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