Two months ago, when the Yankees decided Luis Gil would fill the rotation spot of Gerrit Cole, they would have signed up for health and league average results from the young righty.
A month ago you could begin to see Gil rising into play for AL Rookie of the Year.
Today you can make a case that Gil should be in play to start the All-Star Game and for the AL Cy Young and, give me a second to consult my notes here to remember who earned those distinctions last year. Oh yeah, it was Cole.
In the most stunning element in a brilliant first third of this season for the Yankees, nothing is close to Gil replacing Cole — in every way.
“He’s got amazing talent, a great ceiling and he’s delivering,” Aaron Boone said.
The manager made his statement after Gil authored 6 ¹/₃ one-hit shutout innings Thursday in a 5-0 triumph that allowed the Yankees to split a four-game series with the Mariners and return to their high-water mark of 18 games over .500.
The Yankees have built to 35-17 by basically excelling at every phase as they did Thursday. They scored twice early on homers by Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, making the Yankees the first team to have three players with at least 12 homers. Juan Soto, the third in that group, had an RBI single in the seventh to improve to 6-for-10 with 12 RBIs in left-on-left matchups with runners in scoring position. He drove home Anthony Volpe, who doubled and stole third as part of another catalytic two-hit game that drove the Yankees’ longest hitting streak since 2017 to 16 games.
But what has fortified the Yankees most is that a Cole-less rotation has been 1-to-5 brilliant. Just one Yankee qualified starter since 1997 had an ERA of 2.85 or lower in a 162-game season — Cole last year. This whole Cole-less rotation — Gil, Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman — has a 2.85 ERA.
The Yankees began playing in 1903. Never had they assembled an 11-game stretch in which their starters worked at least five innings and allowed two runs or fewer. Until now. That 11-game streak began with Gil and now they set this mark with Gil. And had Gil in the middle. It is part of a five-start run now in which Gil has won each time while allowing two earned runs on 12 hits in 30 ²/₃ innings. That’s a 0.59 ERA for you kids without a calculator.
This is Trent Green going down for the season with a knee injury in a 1999 preseason game and the anonymous Kurt Warner stepping in for the Rams to win the MVP and a Super Bowl.
“The stuff is high end and he has a pretty high aptitude,” Cole lauded. “He’s really good at making adjustments quickly.”
It is what comes up most often beyond the filth of Gil’s stuff — his precocious ability to absorb teaching. He called Cole his “professor” last weekend after his Yankees rookie record 14 strikeouts against the White Sox. In a nine-minute spree interjected by just three questions, Cole explained what he has most harped on with Gil. To synthesize, Cole said it began mainly with imploring Gil not to be too fine with a fastball that can win in the zone. And to dominate with strike one. And to get a strike when the count is 1-1 to avoid problematic 2-1 counts. And to take a deep breath when his command may betray him, not let frustration in and recalibrate to your best mechanics. And never stop competing.
In this way, there is an AI quality to Gil. He keeps learning. Keeps getting better. His walk percentage was 13.6 in his first three starts, 9.4 percent since, including 7.4 in his last three outings. Still, before the game Seattle manager Scott Servais said the key for the Mariners was “to get him in the strike zone.”
They did. Gil threw strike one to 10 of the first 11 Mariners, ran just two three-ball counts through five innings and did not walk anyone until he began to tire in the sixth, when he issued two. What did he do with two on and two out in what was only a 2-0 game and lefty-swinging, third-place hitter Luke Raley up? Gil got ahead 0-2 and at 1-2 blew Raley away with a 98 mph fastball.
“He just continues to get better and better,” Boone said.
He is third in the AL in ERA (2.11) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.39) and leads the majors with a .143 batting average against — 44 points better than any other AL qualifier. Unlike Green, Cole is due back this season and, unlike the NFL where you can’t play two quarterbacks at once, Cole can rejoin a rotation with Gil. Cole left for Tampa to continue throwing batting practice with the potential he is a month away from returning from the nerve irritation in his elbow.
But remember where we were in mid-March. The screams that to replace Cole the Yanks had to trade for Dylan Cease or sign Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell. It was a time in which the Yanks still weren’t sure that Gil would beat out Clayton Beeter or Will Warren for the final rotation spot and, instead, might ask him to try to fill Michael King’s now-available hybrid relief role.
That was then.
On Memorial Day Weekend, Luis Gil is a Yankees savior.