TORONTO _ Luis Severino initially used one word to describe his first bullpen session since March: "Perfect."
The right-hander, out since the start of the season with right rotator cuff inflammation and a subsequent lat strain he suffered while rehabbing, threw 23 pitches Friday afternoon at Rogers Centre.
"Better than I expected," Severino said, practically beaming. "I threw a couple change-ups, the slider and everything was pretty normal. Like a normal bullpen. I was expecting my secondary pitches to be a little bit off, but they were good."
Severino said he'll throw another bullpen session Monday and likely another one on Wednesday. He could be deemed ready to face hitters sometime soon after that.
"It's been a really long, long year," Severino said. "Now I'm doing this, and now I feel that I'm ready and that I can help my team in a couple of weeks."
It will take a bit longer than that for Severino to be activated, and just how long remains up in the air. From the beginning of spring training, it typically takes about six weeks to get starters stretched out, a time frame the Yankees don't necessarily have as the regular-season clock counts down.
Aaron Boone has said _ and he repeated it Friday _ that one option might be to use Severino out of the bullpen to stretch him out, or to treat his starts like those in March.
"We'll see where we are a few weeks from now, how much he's built up once September gets here," Boone said. "Let's say he joins us in a few weeks; gradually we could build him up through the month of September like you would during spring training. If he gets to us in a two- or three-inning mode, the next time ... you could build his pitches like that and just do it in the big leagues. Whether we commit to that remains to be seen. It's still yet to be determined."
