Perhaps no one in the major leagues is looking forward to a fresh start more than Luis Severino.
And he got one, donning a new uniform for the first time in his professional career after signing a one-year deal with the Mets this past offseason after signing with the Yankees in 2011 and staying there until last season, which turned out to be the low point of his career.
“It feels different,’’ Severino said during the Mets’ workout at Citi Field on Wednesday before the home opener on Friday afternoon. “I like the ballpark, I like the team. I think it’s going to be a good year for me.”
That wasn’t the case last season, when Severino once again battled injuries en route to a year that ended with a 6.65 ERA and the right-hander calling himself “the worst pitcher in the game” after an especially poor outing in Baltimore in July.
But now Severino is armed with a $13 million make-good deal with the Mets and a cutter that he’s used effectively during the spring.
He is already in a better place than he was at this point a year ago, when he missed the beginning of the season with a lat strain.
That came after an ugly spring in which he had a 9.00 ERA in five Grapefruit League outings.
In Severino’s first spring as a Met, he allowed just a pair of runs in 14 innings over four starts.
“I’m feeling good and feeling confident,’’ Severino said. “I worked on different stuff in the spring that really worked. Different pitches and locations and I’m taking that into the games now. It’s a long season, so there are going to be struggles, but I feel mentally prepared and physically, too.”
The way the spring went for Severino, he said, has helped him put last year’s fiasco in the past.
He posted the worst numbers of his career across the board, from strikeout and walk rates, to the ineffectiveness of his four-seam fastball and slider, in particular.
But most of his pitches have looked good so far, something he’s been able to tell by the way opposing lineups have fared against him.
“At the beginning of spring, it was really hard not to think about last year, but by the end, when I started showing signs of improvement, I felt better about everything,’’ Severino said.
And he’s ready for the next challenge in his career.
“I don’t need to prove the Yankees wrong for letting me go,’’ Severino said. “The Yankees are like a family to me. They did a lot for me. They taught me how to be a baseball player and how to be a good person. Now, it’s about me and my fans to know that I’m still here.”
Severino said he knows the only way to do that is to show it over the course of 2024.
“The biggest thing is if I’m healthy for a full year,’’ Severino said. “I think I can do great things like I did before.”
It has been a long time since that was the case, with Severino’s second and final All-Star showing coming in 2018.
He turned 30 last month, but hasn’t thrown more than 102 major league innings in the regular season since ‘18.
“I can do that again,’’ Severino said. “I just have to stick with the routine.”