Yankees top prospect Luis Severino will be called up to make his next start

The Yankees didn't make a deal for a starter at the trade deadline, but they'll be adding a new pitcher to their rotation next time through. Brian Cashman announced today that top prospect Luis Severino would be called up to make his next start with the big league club, likely replacing the injured Michael Pineda. No date has been announced for Severino's big league debut yet, as Cashman says Joe Girardi and pitching coach Larry Rothschild will handle mapping out a schedule for the young right-hander.

Severino has dominated Triple-A since being promoted from Trenton earlier this season. In 61.1 innings with the RailRiders Severino has a 1.91 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 50 strikeouts. Those are certainly some dominate numbers that the Yankees could use at the big league level right now with the state of their rotation currently up in the air and one of their best pitchers expected to miss at least a month.

The only downside to Severino was that he was expected to run into his innings cap before too long. However, Cashman had a different idea:

Cashman: Severino will have no innings limit. They prepared early in the season so he would be ready for this.

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) July 31, 2015

That could explain why he was pulled after only four innings or so from his starts earlier in the year. Perhaps the team sees him as a long term option for the rotation instead of just a replacement for Pineda, which could possibly be bad news for one of Ivan Nova or CC Sabathia once Pineda returns. Hopefully Cashman has made the decision that the team can no longer support Sabathia in the rotation while trying to win the division. Cashman also told reporters that it was all hands on deck for the farm system, which could mean that we will see more prospects coming up in the weeks to come.

Cashman showed a lot of faith in Severino by refusing to trade him for an upgrade at the trade deadline. He'll have a chance to reward that faith from the front office very soon. It's been a long time since Yankees fans had a top prospect to look forward to making their big league debut. Severino is obviously a few cuts above Rob Refsnyder and that was very exciting before it was cut short. Hopefully we will all get a much longer look at Severino.