BUFFALO — Luis Severino was diagnosed with a low grade 2 groin strain, which will delay his return to the Yankees rotation by a month, Aaron Boone said Tuesday.
“We’d hoped to get him back at the end of this month,’’ Boone said before the Yankees‘ 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays at Sahlen Field. “That’s on hold as he has to get that right over the next couple of weeks.”
Severino suffered the injury while making a rehab start for High-A Hudson Valley at Brooklyn on Saturday. It was the right-hander’s second rehab start in his comeback from February 2020 Tommy John surgery and the Yankees had been encouraged by his progress until he came up lame after throwing his 34th pitch of the game.
Boone said he believed the injury was a “freak thing that can happen” and not tied to any change in mechanics or conditioning by Severino.
“It’s one of those things that can happen from time to time,’’ Boone said. “There’s nothing to my knowledge that we identified that was mechanically out of whack. The good thing about his rehab is he’s in tremendous shape. He’s gotten his body as strong and efficient as it’s ever been.”
The injury leaves the Yankees without another top starter for a significant amount of time. Corey Kluber remains out indefinitely with a strained shoulder and Deivi Garcia is not an option to provide much help, as he was ineffective again for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday, when he allowed five earned runs in one-third of an inning. Clarke Schmidt is also a long way away from being able to help. He hasn’t begun a rehab assignment after suffering an elbow strain during spring training.
Luis Gil, one of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects, was promoted to Triple-A on Tuesday. The 23-year-old right-hander had a 2.64 ERA in seven starts with Double-A Somerset. He is slated to make his first start for SWB on Wednesday. … Luke Voit went 1-for-4 in a rehab game with Somerset. He’s on the injured list with a strained oblique.
Aaron Judge, the leading vote-getter among American League outfielders for this year’s All-Star Game, was back in the lineup and in right field Tuesday after missing Sunday’s game with back spasms.
“He’s doing pretty good,’’ Boone said before Judge struck out three times. “He got on the plane [Monday] night and had a good day.”
Boone said he believes the spasms were “something that just popped up on him that he should be able to get past.”
The spasms began on Saturday, when Judge played the entire game and struck out three times in Philadelphia.
The Yankees were confident that, when they named Eric Cressey director of player health and performance prior to last season, it would address their injury woes.
General manager Brian Cashman said he has been satisfied with the results, despite significant injuries this season: to Kluber, whose rehab from last year’s shoulder injury was overseen by Cressey, as well as Severino, Voit and Aaron Hicks.
“I feel like we have found higher ground,’’ Cashman said of the organization. “His reputation is strong for good reason. We have benefited from his programs at all levels of operations. It’s never been promised we would not have injuries and we would eradicate these injuries. Some players are more predisposed than others. I don’t believe Eric Cressey is causing us injuries. I think he’s been a good hire and improved all our programs at every level.”
With MLB’s crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances slated to begin Monday, Boone declined to speculate how it might impact his staff, or ace Gerrit Cole, who was not made available to the media Tuesday.
“I think this is more looking at the pitching industry,’’ Boone said. “I’m not gonna speculate on how it will affect an individual. We’ll look at it as the weeks and months unfold.”