Luis Severino has a tell on the mound that tips his pitches to opponents who know what to look for. That much is fact.
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed on Friday that Severino was tipping his pitches and the Yankees knew about it.
Boone on Severino’s pitch tipping: “It would pop up from time to time. It’s something we’ll address more so this winter to eliminate any chance of that happening."
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) October 12, 2018
The question about whether or not Severino was tipping pitches initially arose when this video of Jackie Bradley Jr. calling out a Severino pitch to a teammate during Game 3 of the ALDS went viral.
.@LouMerloni just nailed it. Red Sox had a beat on what was coming as early as the second inning. JBJ says "Fastball…" to Mookie before an 0-2 pitch to Holt, Severino pumps in 98 MPH fastball that Holt fouls away. pic.twitter.com/wLGR5dVDys
— Dan O'Mara (@Dan_OMara) October 9, 2018
All the suspicion about Severino tipping his pitches led The Athletic’s Ben Harris to do a deep dive into the video to see if he could figure out Severino’s tell. And he was able to.
According to Harris’ research, Severino’s tell comes with runners on second base. Pitching from a stretch, Severino does one thing when he’s throwing a fastball and another when he’s throwing offspeed.
Severino will glance at the runner at second before turning to throw his pitch. The difference is that when he’s throwing a fastball, Severino goes from looking at the runner at second to briefly glancing at third before turning to throw his pitch. Contrarily, when he’s throwing offspeed, Severino goes from looking at the runner at second to turning his head all the way to the plate to throw his pitch. He does not glance towards third for the offspeed. Harris provides video examples in his article.
Severino’s splits before and after the All-Star break showed two different pitchers this season. He was 14-2 with a 2.31 ERA before the break but was 5-6 with a 5.57 ERA after the break. Did he only start tipping his pitches in the second half? Is that when teams discovered the tell? Or were his struggles due to something else?
Also, some may be wondering why the Yankees or Severino didn’t fix things if they knew he was tipping. One, we don’t know when they discovered it. Two, these things from pitchers are things they do without realizing it. They’re often very tough habits to break.
And even if a pitcher is tipping his pitches, that doesn’t guarantee a hit for a batter. However, simply knowing whether to look for hard stuff or slow stuff can give the hitter a major advantage.
At least Yankee fans may now be able to dismiss the questions about Severino’s late warm-up as a potential issue.
