Luis Severino is now a member of the A’s pitching staff after reportedly agreeing to a three-year, $67 million deal on Thursday, according to Yahoo Sports’ Russell Dorsey.
The deal is the largest guaranteed contract in franchise history and includes a $10 million signing bonus and an opt-out clause following the second season.
The 30-year-old right-hander spent last season with the New York Mets after beginning his major-league career with nine years pitching for the New York Yankees. Across 31 starts in 2024, he recorded a 3.91 ERA with 161 strikeouts in 182 innings pitched. He was ranked No. 13 on Yahoo Sports’ list of this winter’s top 50 free agents.
The Mets protected themselves in this situation by extending Severino a qualifying offer, which was a guaranteed one-year deal worth $21.05 million, that he rejected. Now that Severino has moved on, the Mets will get draft pick compensation.
The 2024 season was the first full healthy one for Severino since 2018, as he dealt with lat and oblique strains as well as missing the entire 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Severino was on a one-year deal with the Mets. He compiled an 11-7 record during the regular season and started three playoff games. He threw 182 innings over 31 starts — his most since 2018 — and posted a 3.91 ERA and 1.24 WHIP while striking out 21.2% of batters and walking 7.9% of hitters.
The A’s will play in a 14,000-seat minor-league stadium in Sacramento for the next three seasons before they are expected to move into a brand-new ballpark in Las Vegas for the 2028 MLB season.
What to make of Severino’s deal with the A’s?
The first stunning signing of baseball’s offseason came Thursday, with reports that right-handed pitcher Luis Severino has agreed to a three-year, $67 million deal with the formerly-of-Oakland, soon-to-be-in-Sacramento, eventually-to-be-in-Las-Vegas Athletics. That Severino agreed to a deal early in December is not surprising, considering the recent uptick in activity in the starting pitching market that has seen five pitchers on our Top 50 free-agent rankings find new homes in recent weeks.
But that the A’s — in their transitional state and with baseball’s lowest payroll at the outset of the winter — were the team to outbid other aspiring contenders for Severino’s services? That’s a fairly big shock. After nearly a decade pitching in the league’s largest market in New York, Severino will pitch in Sacramento in 2025, as the A’s begin their multi-year transition to Las Vegas with an interim phase playing home games in a Triple-A ballpark.
The $10 million signing bonus for Severino is significant. The A’s were one of the best teams in baseball in the second half last year and now have a veteran presence in their rotation. The starting pitching market, as you can see, is moving heading into the Winter Meetings. https://t.co/9zpqljov14
— Russell Dorsey (@Russ_Dorsey1) December 5, 2024
Severino’s career began as a star young pitcher in the Bronx with the Yankees, making the All-Star Game and receiving down-ballot Cy Young votes in 2017 and 2018. Injuries derailed his ascent shortly thereafter, culminating in an unfortunate end to his Yankees tenure. But Severino bounced back in a big way after heading crosstown to pitch for the Mets in 2024. He delivered a fully healthy campaign and demonstrated an ability to adapt his arsenal while maintaining a full-season workload. The soon-to-be-31-year-old righty reentered the open market this winter in great position to land a lucrative multi-year deal, presumably from a contending team in search of rotation reinforcements. Instead, the 93-loss A’s have emerged to bring in Severino as more than just a supporting mid-rotation starter, but rather, a bona fide frontline arm.
Unusual optics aside, Severino is a no-brainer roster fit. Oakland’s lineup, headlined by Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler, was quietly one of baseball’s best in the second half last year, a reminder that, despite all the mess of circumstance surrounding the franchise, this roster might be closer to being competitive than many assume. But the pitching staff — particularly the rotation — was severely thin on proven talent. Developing bullpen aces such as Mason Miller or Lucas Erceg is certainly valuable, but the Athletics’ dearth of starting pitching has had them playing from behind far too often for their solid lineup or sneaky nasty bullpen to make a difference.
Severino immediately slots in as the team’s new ace, and his signing might hint at more aggressiveness from the A’s in free agency if the team is serious about building a competitive roster quickly, rather than slow-playing a rebuild in their first year in Sacramento. — Shusterman
