The New York Yankees will face the winner of the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals in the Division Series this weekend. They have as good of a chance as any other team to lift the World Series trophy, but the way there will be long and hard.
A couple of weeks ago, the Yankees had plenty of depth and quality in the rotation. Gerrit Cole was surging, Nestor Cortes was healthy, and only Marcus Stroman had left a feeling of unreliability in fans’ minds.
Things, however, happen over such a long season. Cortes got hurt and is now a longshot to pitch in the playoffs, Stroman is still unreliable, and Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt weren’t good in their last start of the year.
On Saturday, Gil allowed six runs in 5.2 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Walks (just one) weren’t as much of an issue as home runs (a whopping four) in the start.
Should the Yankees be worried about Gil and Schmidt?
Perhaps Gil’s performance wouldn’t be as concerning if he hadn’t conceded four runs in his previous start. In total, the talented rookie has given up 10 runs in his last two turns.
Then, on Sunday, Schmidt conceded four earned runs in four frames, with four walls and five strikeouts. The conditions of the field weren’t the best, but control blips were recurrent in Schmidt’s outing.
The Yankees should be at least a little concerned about their two young, homegrown righties. Cole should be the first starter in the Division Series, and Carlos Rodon should follow him. After that? It’s a mystery.
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Gil and Schmidt’s overall body of work in 2024 has been brilliant, though. Is it fair to be worried about how will they fare in the playoffs when the former finished with a 3.50 ERA and the latter posted a 2.85 mark? Maybe, or maybe not.
The fact is that this particular postseason is crucial to the Yankees. It might be their only one with Juan Soto on the roster, and there is pressure to do things right. So yes, it’s hard to blame fans for being worried about Gil and Schmidt.
Those last few outings were an outlier in an otherwise successful year, though. As long as they are healthy and Nestor Cortes isn’t, they should both play huge roles in the Yankees’ postseason hunt as options to start.
