A few pitches into his Friday morning bullpen session, Luis Gil stopped and said he could not go on. The 26-year-old reigning American League Rookie of the Year felt “tightness” in his right arm, said New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone a few hours later. The right-handed Gil is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day on March 27.
Boone said it was not an elbow injury and not definitively a shoulder injury, but “somewhere higher up,” gesturing toward his upper biceps. Gil is scheduled for an MRI on Saturday afternoon in Florida, and the Yankees expect to have a clearer sense of his diagnosis by Monday.
None of the options are good. Shoulder injuries are generally considered to be more problematic in pitchers than elbow injuries, but an elbow problem would bode poorly for Gil, who underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2022 and missed all but two rehab games in ’23. (Although the rehabilitation process is punishing, Tommy John surgery is largely successful—according to writer Jon Roegele’s calculations, 77% of professionals return to the same level of play afterward. But those undergoing their second such operation make it back at only a 62% clip.)
Gil forced his way into the starting rotation last season and stabilized the staff, with a 3.50 ERA, while ace Gerrit Cole spent more than two months on the injured list with elbow inflammation. But the extra work, as well as the team’s World Series run, meant that Gil threw 159 2/3 innings across the regular season and playoffs, nearly twice his career high. Considering that jump, is his injury concerning?
“Not considering anything, when a pitcher stops his bullpen, that’s concerning,” Boone said, adding, “But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”
Any loss of Gil would be significant—he was expected to be a key piece of their American League pennant defense—but the Yankees are prepared to weather a short absence. Cole is healthy, as are lefty Max Fried, whom the team signed this winter for $218 million over eight years, and lefty Carlos Rodón. Righty Clarke Schmidt, who has started the spring slowly while battling a stiff back, is scheduled to throw two more live batting practice sessions before making his Grapefruit League debut and has said he will be ready for Opening Day. Options to replace Gil include righty Marcus Stroman, who entered camp No. 6 on the starting rotation depth chart. Stroman said when he arrived, “I’m a starter. I won’t pitch in the bullpen. I’m a starter.” Veteran Carlos Carrasco is also in camp on a minor league deal, and prospects Will Warren and Brent Headrick could see some time.
“You know you’re gonna face some attrition somewhere, so hopefully it’s not something too serious,” Boone said. But he also acknowledged, “It feels like something that’s gonna cost us some time.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Yankees SP Luis Gil Injured in Spring Training, Unlikely to Be Ready for Opening Day.
