Luis Gil’s former coach remembers the first time he realized his player was different. It was at a tournament in Baní, Dominican Republic, in early 2013. Gil was a skinny 14-year-old shortstop-turned-pitcher because hitting clearly wasn’t his thing. He was scheduled to pitch the next game, but he had been dealing with command issues, so his coach informed him he wasn’t going to start. Gil lost it.
“He said, ‘Damn! It’s my turn!'” the coach, who goes by Francisco Díaz, said in Spanish with a laugh. “And I said, ‘Relax, you’re going to pitch a lot.’ He always had fire to throw hard all that time. That spirit, that desire. Like, ‘It’s me, it’s me, it’s me.’ Very competitive.”
Díaz is a buscón — a part-agent, part-trainer for Dominican teenagers seeking to sign with major league organizations. He spoke over the phone last week from the Dominican Republic as players practiced in the background. Players he hopes will one day reach Gil’s heights thousands of miles away.
Over a decade since that tournament in Baní, Gil is on pace to pitch more than he ever has in a season as a 26-year-old rookie for the New York Yankees. For six weeks, from his start May 1 through June 14, Gil was arguably the best pitcher in the American League, on a sure-fire path to the All-Star Game with a 1.14 ERA and 61 strikeouts over nine starts after an April hindered by command trouble.
In two outings since, he has resembled the inexperienced hurler not far removed from Tommy John surgery that he is. The right-hander has given up 12 runs across 5⅔ innings over those two games, a regression that corresponds with an unfamiliar workload amid a rotation-wide nosedive.
Gil has never thrown more than 108⅔ innings in a season as a professional. He logged just four innings in 2023 — all in the Florida State League — in his first game action since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2021. This season, he’s already logged 85⅔ innings after his 4⅓-inning performance in a loss to the Mets on Wednesday.
So, is he tired?
“Of course, that’s the question,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday night. “We’ll see. He seems to be in a really good physical place.”
Gil provided a straightforward answer.
“No, I really don’t [feel tired],” said Gil, whose ERA ballooned from 2.03 to 3.15 in one week. “I’m healthy, thank God, and I feel very strong, really.”
GIL’S WORKLOAD WASN’T supposed to be a storyline for a Yankees club suddenly reeling in early July after a blistering opening stanza to the season. It’s become important only because Yankees ace Gerrit Cole got hurt.
The Yankees had their starting rotation set heading into spring training — and Gil was slated to begin the season in the minors. That was until March 16, when the Yankees announced Cole would be shut down for at least three weeks with elbow discomfort.
Replacing the reigning American League Cy Young winner would be impossible, but Gil had already made an impression on the Yankees.
Five days before Cole was shut down, Gil faced the Philadelphia Phillies’ A-lineup in Clearwater, Florida — a group that featured Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner. He tossed 3⅔ scoreless innings in relief, allowing one run, one walk and striking out eight. He emerged confident that he belonged at the highest level.
