Tampa, Fla. — The New York Yankees do not need extra pitching headaches right now. They already have Gerrit Cole rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Carlos Rodon is working back from offseason elbow surgery. Clarke Schmidt is months away from returning. That is three proven arms missing from a rotation that was one of the best in the American League a year ago.
So when one of the remaining starters shows up to camp with the same red flags that plagued him down the stretch in 2025, it gets attention. And that is exactly what is happening with Luis Gil.
The Yankees’ rotation is already stretched thin
Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed earlier this month that the Opening Day rotation for the March 25 opener in San Francisco will be Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Gil. Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn provide depth behind them.
Fried is the clear anchor. The left-hander posted a 3.25 ERA across 195.1 innings in 2025 and finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting. He is the one arm in the group who does not carry a question mark.
Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young winner, is expected back in late May or June. His rehab has been encouraging. He threw live batting practice in camp earlier this month and hit 97 mph on the radar gun. Rodon, who went 18-9 with a 2.09 ERA and 203 strikeouts last season, is targeting a late April return. Schmidt remains on a second-half timeline.
That means Gil is not a depth option for the Yankees. He is one of the five arms tasked with keeping the Yankees afloat for at least the first two months of the regular season. And what he has shown so far in spring training should worry the front office.
Gil’s second outing raises more questions than answers
Gil took the mound Friday against the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers and labored through 2 1/3 innings on 52 pitches. He allowed a home run to Trevor Larnach in the first inning on a 94.5 mph fastball left right down the middle.
Long at-bats ate into his pitch count early. Four of his at-bats lasted seven pitches or longer. Boone pulled him with two outs in the second inning before letting the Yankees pitcher return for two quick outs on two pitches in the third.
Those final two pitches were Gil’s hardest of the day, clocking 96.5 mph and 96.7 mph. But his four-seam fastball averaged just 94.7 mph. That is a slight bump from his spring debut (94.5 mph) but still below his 2025 average of 95.3 mph. It is well short of the 96.6 mph he averaged during his 2024 AL Rookie of the Year campaign.
He generated only four swing-and-misses and one strikeout on the afternoon. For a pitcher whose value depends on his ability to miss bats, those are troubling numbers even in a February setting.
Gil’s 2025 troubles tell the bigger story
This is not a spring training slump that materialized out of nowhere. It is a continuation of patterns that defined Gil’s difficult 2025 Yankees season.
The 27-year-old missed the first four months of last year with a high-grade lat strain. When he returned in August, the raw stuff had faded. His fastball velocity dropped from 96.6 mph in his Rookie of the Year season to 95.3 mph. His strikeout rate cratered from 26.8% to 16.8%. He walked 5.21 batters per nine innings.
Gil finished with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts and 57 innings, but the underlying numbers told a darker story. His 4.63 FIP exposed how much luck played into those results. He ranked among the four worst qualified starters in walk rate, K-BB%, xFIP and SIERA.
The postseason made it worse. In Game 1 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays, Gil allowed two home runs and was pulled after 2.2 innings and just 48 pitches. Toronto won the game 10-1 and eventually took the series in four.
Gil and Boone insist the arm will come around
Gil is not panicking. The Yankees star spoke through an interpreter after Friday’s outing and framed everything as part of the natural buildup process.
“I think it’s the building process of spring training,” Gil said. “The training has been very good. We’re building on every single outing. I think we’ve had a consistent climb to get to the velo I’m used to. I think maybe by the third or fourth start, it might be more consistent to what I’m used to.”
Boone echoed that patience after watching the outing. The Yankees manager pointed to what happens when the velocity eventually ticks up and pairs with Gil’s secondary pitches.
“Part of that is just being really comfortable with his mechanics and his throwing motion to where he’s behind the ball and driving it,” Boone said. “We’ve seen when that velocity starts to climb, coupled with the secondary, then the swing-and-miss comes right back.”
There were some positives to cling to. In Gil’s first start against the Mets, his changeup showed improved command and his pitch shapes looked solid. He has been working on creating more velocity separation between his fastball and secondaries, which could help the heater play up even at reduced speed. The Yankees arm’s slider and changeup were about 2.5 mph slower than last season, widening the gap from a 5-6 mph range to 7-9 mph.
The Yankees have options, but Gil’s window is narrowing
The front office is not blind to the risk. If Gil cannot rediscover his strikeout ability, the Yankees have reinforcements in the pipeline. Pitching prospects Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodriguez and eventually Ben Hess could push for rotation spots. The bullpen remains a possibility too. Gil’s fastball could play better in short bursts where he can air it out without pacing himself for five or six innings.
But the organization would much rather see the version of Gil that tossed 151.2 innings with a 3.50 ERA, 171 strikeouts and a 10.15 K/9 rate in 2024. That pitcher was special. That pitcher was the reason the Yankees refused to include him in a reported trade for Kyle Tucker before the outfielder was dealt to the Cubs.
Right now, with the Yankees sitting at 7-2 in Grapefruit League play and Opening Day less than four weeks away, Gil has perhaps two or three more spring outings to show meaningful improvement. The velocity needs to climb. The whiff rate needs to rise. The walks need to shrink.
The Yankees can survive a few rough starts in February. They cannot afford to carry a fifth starter into the regular season who cannot miss bats. Not when Fried, a bunch of second-year arms and a pair of reclamation projects are all that stand between this roster and a long wait for Cole and Rodon.
Gil’s next start will matter. All of them will now.
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