TORONTO — Luis Severino’s season debut is finally set.
The right-hander, who strained his lat during the final week of spring training, will come off the injured list to start the Yankees’ game Sunday against at Cincinnati, manager Aaron Boone revealed on Wednesday.
“I think he’s ready to go,” Boone said before the Yankees continued their series against the Blue Jays.
Severino will take the rotation spot of Domingo German, who is serving a 10-game suspension for a failed foreign-substance check.
Once German returns from his suspension, either Jhony Brito or Clarke Schmidt likely will be bounced from the rotation.
While German was getting ejected from the Yankees’ win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday, Severino was making the second start of his rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset, building his pitch count up to 58 across 3 ¹/₃ innings. Boone said the Yankees’ takeaways from that game were Severino’s good health and his stuff.
Severino, who is playing on a $15 million team option, has voiced his frustration with how the club has been slow-playing his return. The Yankees were treating his ramp-up cautiously, in part because of Severino’s lengthy injury history.
When he is healthy, Severino can give the Yankees an important boost.
“He’s a great pitcher,” Boone said. “Looking forward to him getting into and a part of this rotation. I know what kind of impact he can have for us.”
A side bonus?
The game Sunday will start at 11:35 a.m., which Severino got some practice with while pitching a morning game in his first rehab start with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — much to his chagrin at the time because he had to drive to Scranton at the crack of dawn.
“He’s used to it,” Boone said with a grin. “He gets to sleep in this time.”
Carlos Rodon (back) advanced to throwing from 90 feet “without incident” on Wednesday in Tampa, Boone said.
That continued the left-hander’s throwing progression after he received cortisone-like shots last week.
Giancarlo Stanton (strained hamstring) is “getting real close” to a rehab assignment, Boone said, though he did not have a date yet.
“I know he’s doing well and full activity,” Boone said. “He is getting close to that.”