CLEVELAND — Luis Severino took a big step toward rejoining the Yankees roster on Monday, but it’s still not clear when he will be back.
The Yankees right-handed pitcher threw his first bullpen session on Monday since being shut down with a strained lat at the end of spring training. Luis Severino told that he didn’t feel any pain.
“Feels really good,” said Luis Severino, who threw 22 pitches before the Yankees fell to the Guardians at Progressive Field. “We’ll see [Tuesday] how I feel and then we’re going to go from there.”
Luis Severino is progressing well
Luis Severino hoped that if he did well on Tuesday, he would be able to throw another bullpen session in “two or three days.” After that, it wasn’t clear if he could start going up against hitters.
“I don’t know that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “First thing was getting through today. Sounds like that went pretty well. I don’t know exactly the plan.”
Luis Severino said he hasn’t felt pain in his lat since approximately a week after the injury, which occurred during his postgame routine following a Grapefruit League start on March 21.
He indicated the day after his injury was made public that he planned to miss less than four starts, but he may go for a longer recovery than initially thought. In Luis Severino’s absence, the Yankees have roped in debutant Jhony Brito, who has had two solid starts.
“Whatever it takes [to get back],” he said. “I don’t know what they think. The trainers are the bosses of that [rehab schedule]. They know more about this than me. So whatever they tell me to do, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The new Yankees on the roster
Colten Brewer, pitching for the first time since April 2, struck out nine batters in relief to preserve a draw game. On a night when starter Domingo German only pitched three innings, Brewer’s excellent outing had eight outs on the ground.
“I gotta pitch my way into every opportunity,” said Brewer, who was acquired from the Rays after the first game of the season. “Every opportunity is earned in this game, so I’m going to stay on that.”
Willie Calhoun had his first start of the season as the designated hitter on Monday, finishing 1-for-4 with a double, a lineout, and a strikeout at Progressive Field. It was his first game in pinstripes after the lefty hitter came to the Yankees roster following the placing of Josh Donaldson on the injured list.
“Willie can really hit,” Boone said. “I just wanted to get him in the lineup today.”
Aaron Judge, who walked in the first inning to have his 43-game on-base streak, has finally overcome it with two strikes that he had attempted to apply over the offseason.
“We’ll keep the approach, but some of the mechanical adjustments I was trying to make with that, we kind of scratched that,” Judge said. “So I think the approach will be the same. Still a lot of improvement I gotta make on that.”
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