While New York Yankees fans have been ecstatic with rookie pitcher Luis Gil’s great start, his time in the starting rotation is apparently coming to an end.
Luis Gil has been a revelation for the Yankees thus far this season. Many supporters of the team were concerned about how the team would fare against ace. Gerrit Cole anticipated to be out for the first few months of the season. However, the 25-year-old has unexpectedly filled the vacuum left by the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner.
The teenager is 6-1 this season and leads the starting rotation in ERA and strikeouts. Gil has played an important role in the team’s second-best record in baseball as of today’s MLB games. However, the team faces a two-pronged problem.
Brendan Kuty of The Athletic Yankees wrote in-depth on Gil’s excellent start on Thursday, but he also highlighted a crucial decision the organization will have to make soon. First, Cole is getting closer to returning to the rotation, and while manager “[Aaron] Boone didn’t rule out a six-man rotation when Cole returns, it seems unlikely given how they’ve operated in the past.”
Then there’s the problem of how much labour Luis Gil has already done this season. The teenager has thrown just over 55 innings, which is already the third-most in his career. At this pace, he’s likely to blast past it, which is always a concern with rookie pitchers who are tired late in the season.
Clarke Schmidt threw roughly 40 innings more than his previous high in 2023, although the results were mixed, particularly late in the season. That is why it is quite likely that the team will eventually reduce Gil’s workload, and Kuty believes a transfer to the bullpen is a real possibility. However, this has both advantages and disadvantages.
“Gil hasn’t pitched in relief since he was in Triple-A in 2021, but his fastball-changeup combination and ability to control his workload in shorter stints could tempt the Yankees to transition him to the bullpen at some point,” wrote Kuty.
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