Luis Severino is currently the Mets’ best starting pitcher and starting scout.
When a former Yankees teammate recently teased him in a group chat about not starting in the Subway Series, he fired back with a body blow that he made public last week: “I’m not scared. Right now, there are only two good hitters, and I can walk both of them.”
The two batters, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, were walked a combined five times in Tuesday night’s subway opener. Four of those were to Judge. The first three were unintentional, the other was intentional. Why not? For the past six weeks, the Yankees have essentially been running a reality TV show: Who Wants to Be the Leadoff and Cleanup Batter?
The selections for Game 1 of Tuesday’s Subway Series were Jamai Jones and J.D. Davis, two guys you might forget were even on the roster. The two combined to be 0-for-6 with four strikeouts and one double play. With Davis in the cleanup spot, Mets starter Jose Quintana was more likely to ask Judge to dance than to challenge him with a strikeout.
Davis was brought in to hit lefties but is now hitless in 12 at-bats. He hasn’t played since the Fourth of July and looked so weak that one wondered if he’d become the first player ever to be picked off during a game. The Yankees had five hits and were 1-for-9 with a run in scoring position in the Mets’ 3-2 win, underscoring manager Brian Cashman’s need to find not only two relief pitchers but at least two capable hitters next week.
The Yankees’ two runs came with some bad news tied to the good news. Gleyber Torres homered for his first home run since June 28 and his second extra-base hit this month. Alex Verdugo doubled to score a run, his first extra-base hit since July 4.
Making an impact is hard in this tough market, so the Yankees may look to one-year complements such as Tampa Bay’s Brandon Lowe (who has a club option for 2025) or Amed Rosario, and then invest more for a potential difference-maker reliever like Miami’s Tanner Scott.
But even if the larger impact becomes clear, Cashman can’t solve all of the Yankees’ problems by 6 p.m. on July 30. Some of these problems, maybe most of them, will have to be solved internally.
So far, the offense has been reminiscent of 2022. The Yankees were second in runs allowed per game that season with 4.98, but that was misleading. A lot of that was down to Judge’s historic production, especially in the second half of the season, when he hit .349/.502/.784 compared to .223/.292/.360 for the rest of the lineup. So when the Astros took Judge out in the ALCS, they shut out the Yankees, too.
As of Tuesday, the Yankees were again averaging 4.98 runs against the opposition, tied with the Orioles for the best in MLB, but Soto and Judge were batting a combined .311/.435/.635 compared to .231/.300/.373 for the rest of the team, and they were even worse against left-handed pitchers, with Soto/Judge slashing .310/.465/.609 compared to .213/.286/.311 for the rest of the team (MLB Network research, Eric Ness).
“That’s a good question, but I can’t think of one single reason why he’s struggling against left-handed pitching,” hitting coach James Rowson said.
The Mets didn’t start Severino because they wanted to ensure they had two lefties in Quintana and Sean Manaea. Unless the Yankees do something about it, they should expect as many lefties on the mound as their opponents, and not many pitches for Judge to hit. The return of Giancarlo Stanton, who has been hitting on the ground and doing agility training, could help, but he’s still at least a few days away. And his OPS against lefties was just .670. Manager Aaron Boone said switch-hitter Jason Dominguez (oblique) will likely return to Triple-A by the end of the week and be an immediate MLB candidate.
The Yankees will almost certainly have to find a replacement for Verdugo (.196 batting average, .556 OPS against lefties), whether that be Dominguez or an outfielder, to complement their right-handed pitching staff, another area where Torres (.108 batting average against lefties) and LeMahieu (.135) have plagued the Yankees.
Judge had a chance to be the hero in the ninth inning, hitting a walk-off hit with Soto on first base, but Jake Diekman struck him out. Judge and Soto were essentially shut down, and the same story from 2022 was repeated.
It’s going to be tough for the Yankees to make the playoffs with a two-man offense, so while Cashman certainly needs to find help — at least some quality secondary help next week — it will have to come primarily from a secondary that has been very disappointing so far.
