What's next for Yankees as Luis Severino opts for arbitration?

Severino was the only Yankee not to settle on Friday

1/12/2019, 1:32 AM

With the deadline for teams to exchange numbers with players who are arbitration-eligible passed on Friday, the Yankees had nine players to strike deals with. And all but one settled.

Yankees RHP Luis Severino will enter arbitration as both sides couldn't come to terms. Severino, who made $604,975 last season, is projected to make $5.1 million in arbitration. But Severino didn't help himself with a rough second half of his 2018 season.

This will be Severino's first year in arbitration, so the process will be new to him. It also may be new to some Yankees fans depending on if you followed Dellin Betances' rough hearing back in 2017. 

Arbitration hearings around the league will begin on Jan. 28, and will last up until Feb. 15. During these hearings, an arbitration panel will review both sides and their suggested numbers, and ultimately choose which side they agree with as the right amount for next season.

In Betances' case, the Yankees wanted to pay him $3 million instead of the $5 million his agent had laid out on the table. The panel chose the Yankees' proposal in the end, but president Randy Levine ripped his agent following the process, calling it a "half-baked attempt" to reset the market for relief pitchers.

Both Severino and the Yankees don't want to relive an arbitration like that, and hopefully everything is resolved quickly. Last season, Severino produced a Cy Young-worthy first half with a 14-2 record, 2.31 ERA and 144 strikeouts over 128.1 innings. However, things changed drastically in the second half, as Severino owned a 5.57 ERA over 63 innings. 

It will be interesting to see what Severino ultimately settles with for 2019, as the 24-year-old hopes to bounce back next season.


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