The reinforcements are coming for the New York Yankees.
According to MLB.comâs Bryan Hoch, 2024 American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil threw a 42-pitch live batting practice with Double-A Somerset on Tuesday and is expected to make his first rehab start there this weekend.
Gil has been sidelined for all of 2025 so far with a high-grade lat strain. When healthy, he is one of the more dynamic arms on this roster and will be of particular use with Clarke Schmidt going down with a UCL injury, which will result in a season-ending Tommy John surgery.
Gil debuted back in 2021 but finally broke onto the scene in 2024. He went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA, a 4.14 FIP, and 171 strikeouts, albeit an MLB-leading 77 walks, over 151 and 2/3 innings.
A Storied Injury History
Gil is just 27 years old, but he has already undergone a careerâs worth of injuries. He had Tommy John surgery in May of 2022, back when he was with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. That kept him out for almost all of the 2023 campaign.
Gil also missed about two weeks last August with a lower back strain, but it did little to derail his Rookie of the Year race. Still, even once he comes back, the New York Yankees will have to proceed with extra caution to avoid another Schmidt or Gerrit Cole disaster.
On the bright side, Gilâs rehab could ease some of the front officeâs starting pitching concerns, and perhaps now, especially without Schmidt, they will feel less inclined to overpay for a rental pitcher.
General manager Brian Cashman has long irked Yankees fans with his insistence on viewing midseason injured list activations as trade deadline acquisitions. For some, it feels like an excuse to be stingy. But, Cashman has a point, and there are few realistically available starters on the market more valuable than Gil — if any.
The Rest of the Rotation
If there is a silver lining to all of these ailing arms, it is that the New York Yankees still boast a devastating one-two punch at the top of the staff with Max Fried and Carlos Rodón.
Fried has been sensational in his first summer with the Yankees, going 11-2 with a 2.27 ERA, a 2.98 FIP, and 111 strikeouts to 24 walks over 119 innings. He will have a tough time capturing the Cy Young with fellow aces like Tarik Skubal, Hunter Brown, Garrett Crochet, and Jacob deGrom all shoving, but his contributions to New York have been monumental.
Rodón, meanwhile, finally looks like the guy Cashman paid for two and a half years ago. Injuries and pressure to perform in the Bronx got to him, but he is putting together a solid campaign with a 9-6 record, a 3.30 ERA, a 3.74 FIP, and 127 strikeouts to 40 walks over 111 and 2/3 innings.
No Cole and no Schmidt hinder the Yankeesâ chances of repeating as American League champions, but that is still a formidable duo.
Rookie Will Warren has also become a big piece of the puzzle and will need to find more consistency to secure a postseason role (should New York even get there). He is currently 5-4 with a 5.02 ERA, a 3.24 FIP, and 107 strikeouts to 39 walks over 84 and 1/3 innings.
The Yankees should still add pitching at the deadline (at the right price) as Gil will take a while to find his dominant 2024 groove.
But this is finally some good news for a New York team in desperate need of it.
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