Standout young Yankees right-hander Luis Severino has changed representation and is now a client of Paul Kinzer’s Rep 1 Baseball, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). Baseball Essential’s Robert Murray tweets that Severino followed agent Nelson Montas De Oca to his new agency.
Severino celebrated just his 22nd birthday in February, but he’s already burst onto the scene as one of the game’s more exciting young arms. The former top prospect made 11 starts for the Yankees down the stretched and helped New York to a Wild Card playoff berth last season by logging a 2.89 ERA in his 62 1/3 innings at the big league level. Severino averaged 8.1 strikeouts and 3.2 walks per nine innings to go along with a solid 50.3 percent ground-ball rate in that impressive debut, and his fastball averaged 95.3 mph along the way.
Of course, with only 61 days of major league service under his belt, Severino remains under team control through 2021. He’s on track to become eligible for arbitration before the 2019 campaign, as he won’t qualify as a Super Two if he remains on the active roster. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any opportunity for contractual work for his new reps, though, as the young righty could profile as an extension candidate if he continues to entrench himself on the Yankees’ staff.
