How Yankees can replace Luis Severino in starting rotation

ATLANTA — Yankees right-hander Luis Severino gave up two long home runs to center field in Tuesday’s 5-0 loss to the Braves … and lowered his ERA.

That’s a testament to how just poorly the right-hander has pitched up to this point this summer.

Severino entered play with an 8.06 ERA, returning to the Yankees’ dugout after four innings of five-run ball (three of which were earned) with that number sitting at 7.98.

Not long ago, Severino called himself the “worst pitcher in the game,” part of the “worst year of [his] life in baseball.” Only Cardinals veteran Adam Wainwright has a higher ERA this year (8.78) among all pitchers that have thrown 60-plus innings.

As has been the case all summer long, Severino’s downfall on Tuesday was his execution. The pitches that Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuña Jr. homered on were right over the heart of the plate, misses that any talented hitter would devour.

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Beyond those two mistakes, Severino looked better. He’s nowhere near where he needs to be, but his velocity was trending up (hitting 99.4 mph on the gun) and he had 12 whiffs, settling into a bit of a groove between the second and fourth innings.

Still, Severino is definitely losing his spot in the starting rotation, right? Clearly that’s not a given.

If the Yankees were going to take him out of the starting staff based on his performance, they would’ve done it by now. In all fairness, this club is dealing with quite a bit of adversity in their rotation. They recently lost Nestor Cortes to what will probably be a season-ending shoulder injury, Domingo Germán is on the restricted list after an incident involving alcohol abuse, Carlos Rodón is hurrying back from his second IL stint of the year and Frankie Montas hasn’t thrown a pitch this season.

That said, the Yankees’ options are limited if they elect to move Severino to the bullpen (or simply cut ties and designate him for assignment).

Moving him to the ‘pen might be beneficial considering his woes in the first inning. Ozuna’s three-run blast on Tuesday raised Severino’s first-inning ERA to 14.80. Opponents are hitting .433 (29-for-67) against him in that frame this year.

Subtracting Severino could occur as Rodón slots back into the rotation. The left-hander is scheduled to return from his hamstring strain during next week’s series against the Nationals at Yankee Stadium, assuming everything goes well with his simulated game at the team’s facility in Tampa on Wednesday.

With an off day on Thursday and Monday, the Yankees can conceivably get to that point without needing Severino again. Rodón would then slide back in and boom, you’ve got your five starters: Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, Carlos Rodón, Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez. Reliever Michael King is also stretching out to throw in more of a starter-like role, so there’s a sixth source of length if the Yankees need it.

Speaking of youngsters like Brito and Vásquez, the only other options that the Yankees could use as a starter down the stretch would be Triple-A call-ups. Pitching coach Matt Blake mentioned Clayton Beeter, Will Warren and Mitch Spence when walking through possible starters in a recent interview with the New York Daily News.

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Max Goodman may be reached at mgoodman@njadvancemedia.com.