Ryan Garcia
Luis Gil’s impressive 2024 season was two years ago; the right-hander looked like an ascending star in the Yankees’ rotation at that point in time, but that star has faded quite a bit.
Last night’s outing against the Rays was another example of the issues that Gil has shown since his injury during the summer of his Rookie of the Year campaign.
Inconsistent fastball velocity, unreliable command, and an inablity to put hitters away have led to the right-hander being the Yankees’ least dependable starter.
With veterans on the way back and a rotation of pitchers who are performing at a high level, Luis Gil is on a crash course for another demotion to Triple-A.
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Why the Yankees Will Have to Make Another Difficult Decision With Luis Gil
The Yankees’ rotation has tons of talent with Cam Schlittler and Max Fried at the top forming an elite duo that can shut down virtually any offense.
Both pitchers have performed like aces in their time as a member of this rotation and go about their dominance in distinct ways which can be difficult for hitters to handle in a series.
Questions surrounding Will Warren and Ryan Weathers were loud this offseason for understandable reasons, but both have done their jobs as mid-rotation arms up to this point.
Luis Gil’s first start with the team following his demotion to Triple-A was not remotely impressive, and the right-hander has shown all the red flags that the team likely used as their reasoning to demote him instead of Weathers or Warren.
While I remain intruiged about his sinker being a potential weapon against right-handed batters, Gil’s poor command and strike-throwing abilities illicited the same reaction out of him that we saw in 2025; pulling back his fastball velocity.
Whenever Luis Gil loses the zone and cannot locate, he’ll start slowing down his fastball which isn’t a very good strategy for trying to improve command, but it also leaves him exposed in-zone.
He ends up pitching more like a washed-up veteran who is trying to keep his job in the league before his profile collapses entirely rather than a young pitcher in their prime with dominant stuff.
This isn’t something the Yankees can deal with every fifth day; not only will they burn their entire bullpen in the process, but they also have enough information to conclude that this is just the pitcher that Luis Gil is.
A 3.55 ERA in 48 career starts is nice, but that 4.32 FIP and 4.74 xFIP are far more descriptive of the pitcher that he’s actually been for the Yankees.
While I understand that they won’t use just one start of Luis Gil before making a change to their rotation, I’m sure they’re aware of the fact that he’s the first-guy-out when Carlos Rodon gets back.
Perhaps a demotion to the bullpen could make Luis Gil a more valuable weapon to this roster, but not knowing how hard he’ll throw on any given day presents some serious questions about whether that would work or not.
I’m not sure if this is a mental or physical issue (probably a little bit of both) with Luis Gil, I do know that if his velocity remains this inconsistent he might not have much of a role on the 2026 Yankees.
You could make a real argument that someone like Elmer Rodriguez, who profiles to be a groundball pitcher with solid swing-and-miss upside, could make better starts than Gil right now.
The same rings true for Ryan Yarbrough, a veteran lefty who has filled this role before as a spot starter with varying degrees of success.
Time is ticking away for Luis Gil to prove to the Yankees that he has more to provide than the starters around him, and we’re awfully close to him getting another demotion.
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