Around the Empire: Yankees news - 3/30/22

New York Post | Dan Martin: The injury bug has come again for Luis Severino, but as of right now, the team is downplaying the severity. Severino is suffering from “soreness” coming out of his most recent spring training start against the Philadelphia Phillies, where he struggled. His next start has been pushed back from Wednesday night. Severino is supposed to be the team’s number two starter behind Gerrit Cole, but considering that he’s pitched fewer than 20 innings over the last two seasons, this probably won’t be the last time he’s pushed back.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: One definite bright side of the spring so far has been the hot hitting of catcher Kyle Higashioka. With Gary Sanchez gone, Higgy will have more at-bats, and getting more offense from him would go a long way. With four home runs over six games, he’s gotten off to a great start. Higgy credits pointers from new Yankee Josh Donaldson for the power surge. Some advice from a former MVP is probably not enough to make Higgy an MVP himself, but even a small boost to his stat line would be great for the Yankees.

MLB.com | Anthony Castrovince: MLB.com ranked the top 10 starting rotations for the coming season, and the Yankees placed ninth (with Nestor Cortes Jr. as the presumed fifth starter). A lot of that high ranking is based on the presence of Gerrit Cole, who’s the prevailing favorite for the AL Cy Young Award. The health of Severino and Jameson Taillon will go a long way to living up to that ranking. Unfortunately for the Yankees, their division rivals the Toronto Blue Jays are ahead of them, ranked third behind the Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers.

NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: Aaron Boone has been using some of the spring training games so far to test out some new outfield alignments. Giancarlo Stanton has been playing the field more often, and Tuesday’s game saw Aaron Hicks in left field while Aaron Judge patrolled center. Boone stated he doesn’t want Stanton to play left field in Yankee Stadium, so Hicks could be in left in games that Joey Gallo sits or plays DH. Gallo will also get some spring reps in center. Having four potential All-Star (or more) outfielders is a good problem to have, and Boone’s willingness to be more creative in their usage is likely a good thing.

Lastly, Apple has announced the first slate of Friday games that will stream exclusively on Apple TV+. The Yankees vs. Royals game on April 29th and Yankees vs. Tigers game on June 3rd are part of the programming.