Luis Gil has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year, but it may not be enough to keep him in the rotation all season.
Gil, 26, is in the midst of his first extended stretch in the majors after he missed most of the 2022 season and all of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery.
The inexperience has not mattered, as the hard-throwing righty has posted a sterling 8-1 record with a 2.04 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 75 innings.
The Post reported in March that Gil would not be saddled with an innings limit but Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, during an interview with “Foul Territory,” indicated before the team’s 10-1 win in Kansas City on Tuesday that the team will err on the side of caution — especially with reinforcements, like ace Gerrit Cole, looming.
“Try to find the best balance for the group,” Blake said on the baseball show as he addressed the team’s strategy with Gerrit Cole’s return on the horizon.
“Is it in the bullpen? Is it a timeout at some point? I don’t know if we have those answers but taking as many steps going forward and getting as much information as possible is our best bet.”
Gil made the Yankees’ rotation in light of Cole’s elbow injury in spring training — and has far exceeded expectations.
He earned American League Pitcher and Rookie of the Month honors for May, going 6-0 with a 0.70 ERA and 44 strikeouts as opposing batters mustered a feeble .109 batting average against him.
Gil has put himself at the forefront of early season Rookie of the Year discussion –– and made himself a candidate to start for the AL in the All-Star Game.
He’s done all of this despite never eclipsing 96 innings pitched in a single professional season, a total he reached in 2019 when he split the campaign between the Yankees’ Single-A and High-A affiliates.
“Obviously, Luis Gil, first and foremost, hasn’t had the track record of innings over the last few years so we have to be really mindful of his workload as we go,” Blake said.
“I think we’ve been pretty upfront that we’re not going to put an arbitrary innings limit on him. More so, we’re going to look at how he’s responding to the workload he’s currently managing, how his work looks like in between, what his recovery looks like in the weight room and training room [and] how his metrics are tracking as we go.
“All of those things are important and maybe give us a more informed decision on him.”
Cole is not the only pitcher aiming to return, as Clarke Schmidt, who went down with a right lat strain in late May, could be an option in the coming weeks.
Schmidt posted a 5-3 record with a 2.52 ERA in 11 starts before the injury.
That would give a squad with MLB’s best team ERA (2.85) with six strong candidates for five rotation slots.
“Those are obviously the tough conversations you hope to have, you have too many good starters,” Blake said.
“This is one of many things we’re going to seriously look at as we go forward.”
