The Yankees are shutting down righty Luis Gil after he was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation, manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Friday (link via Greg Joyce of The New York Post). He won’t throw for at least three weeks.
Gil, the 2024 American League Rookie of the Year, has had a frustrating last year and a half. He missed the first four months of the ’25 campaign after suffering a significant lat strain early in camp. Gil returned in August and managed a 3.32 earned run average across 57 innings. His strikeout rate was down 10 percentage points from the previous season, though, and he gave up a couple homers to take the loss in his lone Division Series start against the Blue Jays.
New York acquired Ryan Weathers over the offseason, pushing Gil to fifth on the rotation depth chart. A number of early-season off days allowed them to use a four-man rotation for a couple weeks, dropping Gil to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to open the year. He came back up on April 10 and was knocked around in three of his four starts. The Yankees optioned him back to Triple-A on April 27. They gave a couple starts to prospect Elmer Rodríguez and will welcome Carlos Rodón back from injury on Sunday.
Gil did not pitch with Scranton between his option and today’s diagnosis. Boone nevertheless told reporters that the Yankees believe this is a new injury and was not a factor in his poor MLB performance in April. If it were determined that Gil had suffered the injury while he was on the big league roster, the Yankees would need to rescind the option and place him on the Major League injured list. He’d accrue service time for as long as he’s unavailable in that case. Gil will not be credited with service time if he remains on the Triple-A injured list.
That’s a secondary consideration, one that’d be a moot point if Gil can’t right the ship to ensure the Yankees tender him an arbitration contract. He won’t resume throwing until close to the end of May in the best case scenario. Even if he’s cleared, he’ll need to progress through a series of bullpen/live batting practice sessions before the Yankees put him into a game.
Rodríguez and the also recently optioned Brendan Beck are the only healthy depth starters on New York’s 40-man roster. Hard-throwing prospect Carlos Lagrange, who turned heads with a dominant Spring Training, is not yet on the 40-man but working out of the Triple-A rotation. He leads Scranton in strikeouts but has continued to battle his longstanding control problems and has only once completed five innings in a start. The Yankees are continuing to develop him as a starter, but he’d probably be better suited breaking into MLB as a reliever if he’s going to be a factor this year.
The Yankees rotation is in good shape despite the lack of experienced upper minors depth. Rodón slots alongside a front four of Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Weathers — each of whom has pitched very well so far. Gerrit Cole is four starts into his rehab from Tommy John surgery and a few weeks away from his first MLB appearance since 2024.
