Cam Schlittler started against Luis Severino's A's on Tuesday, and Severino was back at the Stadium that night with a view of a pitcher many think looks far ahead of schedule. Before the game, Severino said Schlittler is already better than he was at the same point in his own career.
“I think he’s better than where I was at the same time in my career,” Severino said, a frank assessment from a veteran who has lived through plenty of twists of his own. The comment carried extra weight because Severino has had plenty of ups and downs in his career, which gives him a clear sense of how hard it is for a young arm to keep rising once the spotlight finds him.
The framing around Schlittler is the kind of praise that follows a homegrown, hard-throwing right-hander with elite stuff and a fearless attitude. In The Bronx, Severino became one of the more recent examples of that type of pitcher, a comparison that makes Tuesday feel like more than a routine matchup between a starter and an opponent.
That is what made Severino's return matter on Tuesday. He was not just another visitor at the Stadium; he was a familiar name looking at the next generation from the other dugout, and saying aloud that the young pitcher may already be ahead of where he once stood. The question now is whether Schlittler can keep matching that kind of expectation once the game starts asking for more than velocity and confidence.
