On the final day of spring training, we finally have an answer on who will be in the team’s fourth starter.
However, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out who grabs the fifth spot. Recently, Joe Girardi stated that he was electing to carry four starting pitchers for the first couple weeks of the season. Because of how the off-days line up, the team doesn’t need a fifth starter until April 16. So with Bryan Mitchell moved to the bullpen, it was announced that the remaining candidates for the last rotation spot, Chad Green and Jordan Montgomery, will both start at double-A and triple-A respectively on 4/6 and 4/11, which lines them up for a start in the big leagues on the 16th.
Severino will most likely make his first start April 7 in Baltimore. Severino has gone 2-0 with 3.95 ERA this spring with 16 strikeouts in 13.2 innings of work. The 23-year-old’s most recent outing was out of the bullpen against the Phillies, where he fired three hitless frames.
The team has said that Severino would either start in the Bronx or in the minors, and that they don’t envision a bullpen role for him. We’ll see if Sevy can stick in the big league rotation.
Severino is looking to bounce back from a brutal 2016 season where he went 3-8 with a 5.83 ERA. The young righty must find consistency with the command of his pitches in order to find success this season.
With the fourth starting spot filled, all eyes turn to the competition between Green and Montgomery.
