Luis Severino shredded in long-awaited Yankee Stadium return as pitch-tipping concerns reemerge

Luis Severino’s return to Yankee Stadium — more than a season in the making — would’ve been a spectacle even without the added context.

Even without his name swirling in trade rumors. Even without Severino comparing games at Sutter Health Park, the minor league stadium in West Sacramento, Calif., hosting the Athletics until they complete their Las Vegas move, to “spring training” and ripping it as a listless place to pitch.

Even without his postgame admission Sunday that he spent a recent bullpen session trying to figure out if he was tipping pitches — an issue the Yankees spent years trying to fix.

All of that collided during Severino’s dud in The Bronx, where he failed to make it out of the fourth inning during the Yankees’ 12-5 win, surrendered seven runs — six earned — and struggled with command (three walks, two hit batters).

Neither Severino nor A’s manager Mark Kotsay thought pitch-tipping played a role, and Severino didn’t regret being “honest” with his thoughts about the A’s ballpark.

He can’t control if he gets traded before the July 31 deadline, but he acknowledged that this is “not the year I was planning.”

“I mean, if they trade me or not, I’m gonna keep grinding, trying to be my best self,” Severino, who pitched for the Yankees from 2015-23, said. “… I can do nothing about if they get mad [at the ballpark comments] or not. I just say what it is, you know. I’m not gonna go out there — if you ask me how I feel pitching at home, I’m not gonna lie to you. Because at the end, you guys are gonna figure out if it’s a lie or not. … I was not trying to, I mean, hurt nobody’s feelings by saying that, but I think I’m not the only one who feels the same way.”

Severino saw “little things” from his prior start that didn’t categorically suggest tipping, but “most of the tippings are not 100 percent.

They’re like 70 or 80 percent.” He worked on glove positioning, changed up mechanics ahead and felt improvement Sunday before everything unraveled.

One year after Severino’s “two good hitters” jab while with the Mets, the Yankees, for a second time in 2025, forced an early exit.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. sent the first pitch of the second inning over the fence, and Severino loaded the bases in the third before surrendering a triple to Chisholm.

Then, Aaron Judge drove in two more runs with a fourth-inning homer. For a Yankees group stuck in a weeks-long funk, Severino served as the antidote.

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Perhaps he could be back in New York City again just over a month from now, if the Mets trade for him.

Perhaps he’ll have to settle for pitching in Sacramento.

But Severino’s prevailing thought, after allowing 29 earned runs across his past six starts, was that the struggling pitcher who keeps appearing “is not me.”

“This is not close to being me,” Severino said, “the numbers that I have.”

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