TAMPA — Luis Severino is not looking forward to his first visit to the salary arbitration process.
Scheduled for a hearing on Friday in St. Petersburg, the Yankees’ best starter asked for $5.25 million and the Yankees countered with $4.40 million after the sides didn’t reach a deal before numbers were exchanged.
Like many clubs, the Yankees don’t settle the difference after the money has been filed and leave the case in the hands of an arbitration judge.
“Of course,” Severino said Wednesday when asked if the process was something he would like to avoid and explained he had to check with his agent, Nelson Montes de Oca from REP 1, for the hearing’s date and time. “Any player doesn’t want to be in that situation.”
According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Yankees and Severino’s camp have discussed a contract extension. Should that lead to a deal, the arbitration hearing would die.
Severino participated in a bullpen session on the first day of pitchers and catchers Wednesday at George M. Steinbrenner Field, but as of 11:30 a.m. he hadn’t spoken to Dellin Betances about his bitter arbitration experience two years ago, when he got beat and heard things during the hearing that upset him.
“The last guy here [to go to arbitration] was Dellin, and I haven’t seen him,” Severino said of Betances, who asked for $5 million to the Yankees’ $3 million and settled the past two years in a process that can be testy. “But I hear a lot that it is not fun.”
Severino posted a 19-8 record and a 3.39 ERA last season, when he made $604,975 and was an AL All-Star for the second straight year. However, the difference between Severino’s first three months and final three was stark.
In 17 games from March 29 to June 26, the soon-to-be 25-year-old (Feb. 20) was 12-2 with a 2.10 ERA and held hitters to a .201 average. From July 1 to Sept. 25, he went 7-6 in 15 games, had a 5.20 ERA and hitters batted .285.
Tipping pitches was one theory for Severino’s second-half struggles. He did provide four scoreless innings against the A’s in the AL wild-card game victory, but in the pivotal Game 3 of the ALDS against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Severino was rocked for six runs and seven hits in three innings during a 16-1 loss that put the Yankees in a 2-1 hole in the best-of-five affair.
After the Red Sox sent the Yankees into the offseason, Severino wanted to find out why he was fatigued in the latter part of the season. He pinpointed what he ate and overhauled his diet, replacing fried food with vegetables, and said he deleted 12 to 15 pounds off the 6-foot-2 frame that was listed at 218 pounds last season.
“I talked to the nutrition [person] with the Yankees and she helped me a lot,” Severino said of Cynthia Sass. “It’s not easy, I really hate eating vegetables. I feel way lighter.”