Severino Swatch

Luis Severino pitched about as well as you could ask a 21-year -ld to pitch in the Majors. He dominated the minors over the past couple of years, and on August 5th, made his ML Debut. Unfairly, he was counted on to help bring some stability to a suffering rotation.

Ultimately, the Yanks lost the division lead and ended up with the Wild Card. They were so bad over the last 8 weeks of the season, that it sort of cast a shadow on Severino's debut. It wasn't his fault at all, but the whole team had sort of a "meh" feeling, making it hard to get excited about the potential he flashed.

All told, he had a 2.89 ERA in 62 innings, striking 56 and walking 22. He really only had one clunker of a game, and of course it was against the Jays. Otherwise, he was mostly excellent and usually above average.

However, I think the "meh" finish of the team can actually help temper expectations for him. Had the team won the division and played well in the Playoffs, I think expectations for him would be a lot higher due to a larger national exposure. I'm not glad they lost the division, that's not what I'm saying, just that Severino feels like he's flying under the radar due to a fairly poor team performance from August-October.

Maybe I'm right, I don't know. However, I'm very excited about what a full season of him in the rotation could look like. So excited, that I felt like I should snag a few of his rarer cards now, as they might be a lot tougher to come by mid-season.

The dual relic shown above is from 2015 Diamond Kings and was a cheap COMC find that I stashed in my account intil I had a shipment ready. I'm not certain what the red jersey is from. I assume it's a Charleston jersey, since he wouldn't have been in Scranton yet. The navy blue could be from any level, really. Pretty nice card overall, though.