The New York Yankees were expected to get some hardware this year with Aaron Judge being the clear-cut favorite for AL MVP, but he won’t be the only award winner this year in the Bronx.
Luis Gil, who won the fifth starter job in Spring Training after Gerrit Cole went down with an elbow injury, will take home AL Rookie of the Year. He pitched to a 15-7 record with a 3.50 ERA across 29 starts, stabilizing a rotation that took a serious hit after Gerrit Cole’s injury. He’s now the 10th Bronx Bomber to win the award in the franchise’s illustrious history.
Luis Gil Becomes the 10th Player in Yankees History to Win Rookie of the Year
Luis Gil was far better than anyone could have expected this season, providing plenty of big starts during the regular season and displaying some of the best stuff in the league. The Yankees relied on him to fill the void for the reigning Cy Young Winner, and he became a frontline starter for the team. Unlocking a brand-new changeup while rehabbing from Tommy John Surgery, Gil was able to sport a three-pitch mix that would dominate hitters with high whiff numbers.
During the season, the right-hander developed a brand-new slider, which became his go-to pitch as he dealt with the fatigue of a full-season workload. This was a career-high for him in innings pitched (151.2) and starts (29), not even counting his two starts for the Yankees in the ALCS and World Series. While he would have already collected the full year of service time for 2024, winning Rookie of the Year would have guaranteed it for Gil regardless of whether he came up later in the season or not.
It was a close race, as Luis Gil finished with 106 points and Colton Cowser finished with 101 votes, with the Yankees’ other finalist Austin Wells a distant third place for the award with 17 points. Gil had the most first-place votes (15) but had one fewer top-3 vote than Cowser. Had Cowser won the award, it would have been the second-straight season where the Orioles had the AL Rookie of the Year winner.