Former New York Yankee Gets Opening Day Nod for A's

Opening Day for the 2025 baseball season is technically behind us, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs playing in the Tokyo Series, but for the other 28 teams, their seasons begin on March 27, which is just over a week away.

This week, the A's made the official announcement that Luis Severino would in fact be the starter on Opening Day in Seattle against the Mariners. This has long been the assumption, ever since GM David Forst jokingly proclaimed him the starter for that day when the team signed him for three years and $67 million back in December.

The 31-year-old spent the first eight years of his career with the New York Yankees before signing a one-year deal with the New York Mets last season. He went on to post a 3.91 ERA (4.21 FIP) across 182 innings for the Mets after holding an ERA over six the previous season.

While the A's are certainly after his production on the mound, giving them a solid top-of-the-rotation veteran arm, what is arguably more appealing to them would be to get innings over the course of the year.

There have been a lot of moving parts within the A's rotation, outside of another former Yankee, JP Sears, and the hope is that by adding Severino that there will be more stability within that group.

Plus, having that guy that go go six or seven frames will help save the bullpen while the back-end of the rotation is still learning on the job.

In three spring starts with the A's, Severino holds a 6.00 ERA in nine innings. According to the projection systems over at FanGraphs, the A's new starter is slated to post an ERA around 4.30, depending on which projection you look at. Nearly all have him pitching more than 168 innings.

Injuries are impossible to predict, but the hope is that he'll be the leader for this up-and-coming team in the rotation.

As for who he'll be facing next Thursday, it'll be one of Seattle's perennial Cy Young contenders, Logan Gilbert. In 12 appearances against the Athletics, Gilbert holds a 3.09 ERA over his career. Last season he went 1-1 with a no-decision against the A's, giving up five runs in 18.2 innings, which works out to a 2.47 ERA.

Both teams will be looking to get off to a hot start, with the Mariners looking to make it back to the postseason, and the Athletics hoping to make a statement with the opening series.

The rest of each team's rotations and projected starters for that series will come out in the days that follow.