Adam Ottavino identifies what newest Met Luis Severino needs to 'clean up' in 2024

The first major signing by the Mets this offseason was bringing in former Yankees right-hander Luis Severino on a one-year deal.

While the move has been widely seen as a low-risk, high-reward acquisition, the risk comes from Severino’s durability and his performance this past season. 

In 19 games (18 starts) with the Yankees in 2023, Severino was statistically one of the worst pitchers in the game. He pitched to a career-worst 6.65 ERA, but was as high as 8.06. He gave up five-plus earned runs six times in his first 13 starts and had an 11.50 ERA in the first inning.

So, what went wrong for the 29-year-old? He did have a late start to the season after getting injured in spring training but something seemed off. Former Mets and Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino confirmed on SNY’s Baseball Night in NY that Severino was prone to tipping his pitches.

But Ottavino, who pitched with the Yankees when Severino was hurt in 2019-20, believes that the problem the righty had last season was with his pitch shapes.

“When I dove into Sevy’s numbers this year, a couple of things jumped out for me,” Ottavino explained. “For one, his fastball got hit a lot harder and his slider got hit a lot harder. For me, the reason is the shape of his fastball has shifted a little bit. He's lost about an inch of rise on his fastball. Why is that significant? Because if he had his old shape, a lot of times guys would be slicing underneath the ball popping them up, instead they're making that solid contact.

“With the slider, [Severino] was throwing it in the upper eighties. Now it's more in the mid-eighties. So when he throws those borderline pitches, there's more reaction time there for the hitter to make better swing decisions against him. That kind of pushes him into the middle of the plate a little more than guys would want to be.”

Ottavino added that he sees Severino’s pitching fundamentals are still solid and that his first-pitch strikes are at the same rate they always have been, he’ll just need to "clean up" his fastball and slider.

Now that Severino is in Flushing, it’ll be up to pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to get Severino back on track. Ottavino has worked with Hefner the past two seasons he was with the Mets and is confident he can get the best out of Severino.

“Hef’s really smart. He's going to do a really good job of dissecting the little things in [Severino’s] delivery,” Ottavino said. “They're going to get that fastball back on track, kind of driving that slider back in because Hef’s got a lot of experience with guys with this exact type of slider. You want it to look like a fastball and then disappear at the last second. I think Hef’s going to dial that in. I think that's going to be the big key for him is really the slider more than the fastball is getting that right.”

After stellar 2017 and 2018 seasons, Severino would miss essentially two years due to injury. When he came back in 2021, he was a reliever and excelled. In four appearances (six innings), he gave up just two hits and no earned runs. In his career, Severino has a 1.44 ERA in 16 relief appearances.

So that’s another way the Mets could utilize Severino if his struggles as a starter continue in 2024. While Ottavino doesn’t see that happening, he knows Severino could do it.

“[Severino] would be great in that role, but hopefully it never even comes to that,” Ottavino said.

With the Mets needing a few starters to rebuild their rotation, Severino is a good start, and he certainly won’t be the last addition for this team who is looking to compete next season.