3:05pm: Manager Aaron Boone says that Gil’s back injury is minor and they hope to have him back after the 15-day minimum, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic on X.
2:30pm: The Yankees announced today that right-hander Luis Gil has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain. Fellow right Will Warren was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move.
Gil started last night’s game against the Guardians but lasted just three innings and 78 pitches before he was removed. The club later announced that he departed with low back tightness, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic on X. The club hasn’t provided any updates today about how long they expect Gil to be out, but it seems they expect him to miss at least a couple of weeks, based on this IL placement.
That will interrupt an excellent rookie season for the right-hander, as he has made 24 starts with a 3.39 earned run average. His 12.6% walk rate is on the high side but he’s been able to counteract that with a strong 27.5% strikeout rate.
Gil may have needed a breather at some point anyway, since he is already pushing into uncharted personal territory in terms of workload. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May of 2022, missing most of that season as well as 2023. Prior to that, his career high in terms of innings was 108 2/3 in 2021, between the majors and the minors.
Here in 2024, he’s already logged 124 2/3 frames. That means he’s well into personal-high territory, on the heels of two mostly lost seasons. Even though his results have been strong, the Yankees may have been pressed to think about lightening his load somehow, either by optioning him to the minors or transferring him to the bullpen.
The IL stint could perhaps act as that breather, as long as it’s not a terribly significant injury. If he just needs a few weeks on the shelf, perhaps that will allow him to recharge for the stretch run and the postseason.
In the meantime, the Yanks will be down another man in the rotation that’s missing a few guys. Gil will join Clarke Schmidt, JT Brubaker and Cody Poteet on the IL, though some of those guys could be back in the mix soon. Poteet began a rehab assignment last night and Schmidt is expected to start one on Friday, per Kirschner on X.
For now, the rotation consists of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman, with Warren presumably stepping in to replace Gil. Despite the Yankees having a strong record of 73-53 this year, they haven’t had amazing results out of that group. Stroman’s 3.82 ERA is the best of the bunch and he’s probably lucky to have that number. His 16.8% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 48.1% ground ball rate are all on pace to be the worst of his career. Cole, Rodón and Cortes each have ERAs of 4.15 or higher. Warren has an 8.59 ERA in his first three major league starts.
The IL placement of Gil has the potential to have ripple effects beyond the 2024 Yankees. He has been in the conversation for American League Rookie of the Year and this absence might push him back in the race. ROY voting now has impacts for clubs and players as certain top prospects can net their clubs an extra draft pick if they are promoted to the Opening Day roster and win the award, while other guys can earn themselves a full year of service time even if they haven’t been up all year.
Gil himself isn’t PPI eligible since he wasn’t a top prospect coming into the year but guys like Colton Cowser and Austin Wells are eligible for the prospect promotion incentive and perhaps now have a greater chance of netting their clubs a draft pick.
If that’s Will Warren’s nickname then you’re in luck!
Lol. Over half of MLB teams will be better than the Yankees in 2025. 4 good players+ Stanton (if soto resigns) will be over 90 percent of payroll. Overrated prospects, etc
Fools like you said similar things last year. How’s that working out?
Every al central and al west team(minus Chicago) also, Boston a, Baltimore and Tampa
It’s too early to be this drunk
You’re clueless as they come. Yankees have $84 million off the books after the season. Stanton only counts $22 million towards luxury tax so his contract hardly an albatross anymore as he will only be owed $64 million including his option for 2028 that gets declined. Stanton will get another season in 2025 and Yankees eat the remaining 2/$34 and send him packing after 2025. Soto is NOT resigning as he wants nothing to do with this organization and Boone plus Steinbrenner wants no part of paying 1 player $500+ million. Yankees will have plenty of money to get themselves a true Closer, 1B, #2 type starter and a 3B if they decide Chisolm better off in CF. Dominguez and Durbin will fill LF and 2B holes and a healthy bullpen all returning its regulars minus Kahlne and Holmes will be just fine. Eliminating Torres, Verdugo, DJ and Rice from starting lineup will do wonders and the team will be excellent even without Soto.
@Anthony- I agree with you. Soto is more than likely not going to re-sign with the Yankees this off season. And tbh, I think that’s the best decision for them in the long run(as well as present). As much as I’d love to see Soto and Judge in the same lineup for the next 10-years, they’re going to be able to sign 2-3 above average players with the same amount of money it would cost to bring back Soto. And for as good as Soto is, I’d much rather see them spend that money on multiple players rather than just a player. Who they end up trying to bring in depends on what they’re planning on doing with Jazz, Dominguez,and others. As for Jazz, I’d like to see him at 2B next year. I think it’s probably the position he plays the best defensively.As for FA’s, Id like to see them try and get Santander(depending on the price) or Teo Hernandez as a Corner OF replacement for Soto. I prefer Santander over Teo bc he’s a switch hitter. But Teo will prob be cheaper to sign. They also need to get a 1B and 3B as well as a legit closer. I don’t ever want to see Clay Holmes coming out of their bullpen ever again after this season. I’ll bet a good amount of $$ that Holmes ends up costing them at LEAST 1-game this post-season . The fact that they’re continuing to send him out there to close out games is literally the definition of insanity at this point. But for whatever reason, Boone and Co continue with him as their closer and he continues to fail. Which will without a doubt continue to happen when he’s called upon to try and close out a game(s) in the post season. On a totally different note, how much money would you say that Gleyber and Verdugo have cost themselves with their performance(or lack there of) this season??! Prior to the start of this season, they were both prob looking at a min of 3+year deals had they each just posted an average and healthy year. Now I’d be very surprised if Verdugo gets anything more than a 1-yr $10(max) deal, similar to what Bader got from the NYM. And I think Gleyber might be able to get a multi yr deal but that’s only bc he’s a 2B and even then i doubt it’s more than a 2year deal from someone.
tl;dr
Paragraphs are your friend.
You can’t just say the Yankees are not going to sign Soto, they traded for him with the intent on resigning him later
There hasn’t been an extension because boras wants to go to the open market, but the yanks are one of the richest teams in baseball and at least should be top contenders in the sweepstakes
Are you Soto’s closest friend and confident to know his plans??
I believe you make some excellent points. I am in agreement.
“Over half of MLB teams”…That hasn’t been even close to true in the last generation or two. I’m as big a Yankee hater as there is, but you can’t just make up stuff and pass it off as truth.
Hard to figure out exactly what CBT payrolls are exactly. Multiple sites have different figures.
Going by what Cot’s lists for NYY.. Shows NY at right at 300m this season and falling to right above 200m in 2025, but see various options NY has and of course, dspite what many say/post? We know NY will do anything it can to sign Soto and next season (2025) would make it a 3rd consectutive season as CBT overage if am correct, pushing back 1st round pick 10 places.
Only salaried FA saw, making over 10m could see them allowing to walk was Gleyber Torres and his 14m. Clearing more salary (Stanton etc) would require effort.
Get lost troll
Lost where?
Because they’re not going to sign anyone, trade anyone or make any moves whatsoever in the offseason? Go back to your Harry Potter chat board and let the grown ups talk.
Glad Yankees shipped out pitching depth at the deadline….because, you know, you never need it this time of year.
Just part of Cashman’s overall deadline clusterpuck. Why on earth Hal ever doubled down and extended Cashman after failing in all but one of over twenty seasons, while spending just about top dollar in every single, is completely beyond. Just so many bad decisions. With that kind of money, he can generally put together a team that wins a lot of games, but absolutely no way can he put together a team that can get through the postseason. Even spending $300 million. They are not even close to being able to get to the WS. They have two hitters, all five of their starters are questionable on any given night, and they have the most unreliable closer among all the teams headed for the postseason. Cashman is a disaster. Hal should cut his losses and send him packing now. I have my doubts about Boone, too., but I don’t think I am close enough to their day to day activity to judge all of his (seemingly bad) decisions.
AL East race: who can screw it up the least wins
If the demise of Luis Gil this season was not foreseeable idk what is
I hope this is more of a precautionary move and Gil is back in the minimum time. There’s a good chance last night was his final start and he moves to the bullpen for the remainder of the year
I don’t think it’s a good idea to move him to the pen. First of all, he doesn’t have the best control. Second, he’s going to have to start in the playoffs for the Yankees to have any chance going to the WS and bouncing from the rotation to the pen and back to the rotation is not a recipe for success.
Joe, I always love your comments. Very thoughtful input but the truth is:
BOONE IS NOT A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS. Same story every year, Come out hot, play becomes average, consistency becomes non-existent and we fold, fold, fold
No arguments there Rick. I’m over Boone and Cashman both.
“Boone is not a recipe”…I couldn’t agree more. The players have no fear of Boone, knowing he’ll rarely criticize them privately or publicly. It feels like the players consider him much like a substitute teacher, knowing they can play half speed with little or no consequences. It’s ironic that Joe Girardi was fired for losing game 7 of the ALCS, when Aaron Boone has not come even close to reaching a game 7 in any ALCS in over a half decade.
Joe girardi looks like a HOF manager compared to Boone
girardi had real flaws but his yankee teams always played hard (even in 2013/2014 when they had nothing to play for after july)
that’s true, Joe. And I wouldn’t worry, we’re not going to the World Series this year. This team once again does not have it in them. You see that they cannot hit when it counts. And their biggest deficiency is Aaron Boone followed by Cashman, the latter who never makes the necessary moves because he always, chickens out at the trade deadline oh whenever . he couldn’t even sign Aaron Judge, his boss had to step in and do it. And if it had been done a year prior when the judge was willing before he had his MVP season well he would’ve signed for $100 million less or something saving his boss that much money. It’s a wonder. The guy still has a job after costing his boss $100 million more. I’d like to have a job like that. I’m incompetent does not care and keep me on for life.
yup, and he never will. He always finds a way to muck things up with his bullpen choices and lineup, substitutions and so forth.
“Girardi had real flaws..always played hard”….You bet they played hard for Joe Girardi; anyone who doesn’t will end up wearing Joe Girardi much like a T-shirt or pair of underwear. Nobody ever got away with not playing hard on a Joe Girardi led team.
Fatigue is clearly setting in for Gil so I don’t think he’s going to be able to hold up through the postseason if he sticks in the rotation. His stuff will play up better in the pen so his walk rate should dip a bit. I think Cole, Rodon, and Schmidt are going to be the primary SPs for the postseason and they’ll figure out a game 4 starter on the fly
Ronk if he stays in the pen he might can handle it. It also wouldn’t be a bad thing to give him an extra week or two on the IL for some rest.
I’m all for Gil coming out of the pen for now. Even if he needs to stretch out again for the playoffs, they can limit his innings during a playoffs start. It’s not pretty while Nestor and Weaver can piggyback him for multiple innings.
yup Joe. Except the guy has poor control, it’s not a recipe for a good bullpen piece.
I believe it is, he was due for some rest anyway. He has never pitched this many innings before. This is their way of getting him that break or rest that he has been needing anyway.
I just strained my lower back in the kitchen, so I feel his pain.
Yankees just lost their most effective starter.
it was inevitable. He will be back when he gets the break and the rest that he needs. He has never pitched this many innings. I believe this is their way of getting it for him.
Panic some more the Yankees are resigning Soto.
Gil is getting his innings limited slightly and could be the bulk out of the pen if Schmidt is healthy.
A rotation of Cole, Rodon, Nestor, Schmidt, and Stroman is more than sufficient.
If/when Gil comes back needs to be the closer. Looks like cheap Cashman is regretting not trading for Burnes or signing Snell. The Division will go down to the last week. Both New York or Baltimore haven’t shown any sense of urgency
Cashman signed Stroman and couldn’t wait for Snell as he stalled. Trading for Burnes would’ve meant giving up Dominguez. Gil has almost double the walk rate of Holmes’ so what makes you think he would succeed as a closer?
@ Nick Baratta: The rotation is more than sufficient for what? Limping into a Wild Card series? Certainly not for getting to the World Series. Again.
See you next year, Luis!
Let Warren mop up tonite after Nasty Nestor gets blown out early before Will gets shipped back to Scranton.
Scott Effross next man up!
Soto will most likely be back no one else is going to bid that for him… who has 500 plus million and can take that on? METS? NYY won’t let that happen for headline purposes boston is cutting the dodgers? Doubt it unless they defer again like ohtani… I can see him sitting out there for a offer that doesn’t come and ultimately he signs for a 2 or 3 year deal for something like 35 to 45 million per and I think the yankees would do that
If the Yankees didn’t try to undercut the tigers at the last minute in the Flaherty deal and leak bogus medical concerns to try and get him cheaper… They have an ace. A horse. Now? Noshot in a 7 game series. Cashman should’ve been fired long ago.