Feb. 28th Spring Training Notes: Severino, Chapman, Sanchez, Paxton, Wilson

The Yankees beat the Pirates this afternoon and are 3-2 this spring. Troy Tulowitzki clubbed a three-run home run, his second dinger of the spring. “I’m probably more excited about how well he’s moving in the field and how he’s attacking the ball and just playing free and easy. He looks really athletic out there,” said Aaron Boone to Brendan Kuty after the game. Tyler Wade also went deep, and Greg Bird and Aaron Judge both had doubles. Bird is 5-for-8 (.625) with two doubles and a homer so far. He needs a good spring and is having one so far.

J.A. Happ made his spring debut and allowed three runs and two homers in 1.1 innings. I wouldn’t sweat that at all. A veteran like him is just going through the motions on February 28th. Adam Ottavino and Zack Britton both made their spring debuts as well. Ottavino allowed two runs on two hits and a walk. Britton tossed a scoreless frame. The important thing: Everyone’s healthy. Here’s the box score and here are today’s notes from Tampa:

As for yesterday’s report that Happ was starting on Friday and Paxton on Saturday, that was obviously wrong. Seems like someone wrote the wrong days in their notebook or something like that rather than the Yankees changing their pitching plans, then changing them back again. Anyway, Paxton starts tomorrow and Masahiro Tanaka starts Saturday.
Luis Severino and Aroldis Chapman threw simulated games today as scheduled. Giancarlo Stanton almost hit Severino with a hard-hit comebacker, which would’ve been bad. Here’s video. “It’s not fun,” Severino said of facing Stanton and Gary Sanchez. “I’m healthy and feel really good,” said Chapman when asked about his knee. [Lindsey Alder, Mark Didtler]
Sanchez (shoulder surgery) will indeed make his Grapefruit League debut tomorrow night as scheduled. He’s going to catch a few innings. The Yankees held Sanchez out of the first week of games as a precaution. Also, Tulowitzki will play four innings Saturday as the Yankees ease him into things. [Coley Harvey, Brendan Kuty]
Paxton has been picking Andy Pettitte’s brain this spring. “(We talked) about our back sides, our arm swings. We both have a tendency to get long. Towards the end of his career, he tried to shorten things up, took stress off the shoulder. He was chatting about that a little bit,” said Paxton. [George King, Ken Davidoff]
And finally, the Yankees don’t know whether Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson will join them for their Spring Training again this year. It was reported he would a few weeks ago, though I guess that was not set in stone. [Erik Boland]

The Yankees will play their first night game of the spring tomorrow when they host Orioles at George M. Steinbrenner Field. That game will not be televised. The next Yankees broadcast is Sunday.