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The Yankees and Luis Severino had an arbitration hearing scheduled for today. Thankfully both parties can clear their calendars, because the Bombers reportedly inked Severino to a four-year, $40 million contract extension. Joel Sherman first had the news, while Jeff Passan noted the deal includes a club option for year five.
Prior to the agreement, the Yankees and Severino had a difference of $800,000 between their arbitration figures. The right-hander filed for $5.25 million, while the front office countered with $4.4 million. Jon Heyman noted a few days ago that the sides had discussed an extension, but as of last night were not particularly close. It looks like they made up ground quickly.
Passan offers a quick rundown on the financials, which appears to be a team-friendly deal:
Breakdown of Luis Severino's deal, per source:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 15, 2019
2019: $4M+$2M bonus
2020: $10M
2021: $10.25M
2022: $11M
2023 (club option): $15M with $2.75M buyout
Interesting part of that: higher salaries in '20 and '21, lower than usual in '22. Why? Protection against a work stoppage.
Severino, 24, pitched to a 3.39 ERA (2.95 FIP) in 2018. That total, however, doesn’t portray the whole story. The right-hander posted a 48 ERA- through the end of June, finding himself in legitimate Cy Young conversations. From July on, that ballooned to a disastrous 120 ERA-. Nonetheless, Severino is just two years removed from a top-three finish in the 2017 Cy Young balloting. He has demonstrated that he can handle front-line starter duties.
We’ll have a more in-depth breakdown of the deal shortly. For now it appears that Severino took the sure thing, while the Yankees received a good deal of financial flexibility.