The suddenly slumping New York Yankees lost again on Friday night at Tropicana Field. The offense continues to come up short, and they just can’t buy a hit. We’re putting the bats to the side for a moment though to discuss Luis Gil and his first start of the season at the MLB level after struggling on Sunday in Triple-A. Skipped in his first time around because the Yankees only needed four starters through the first couple weeks, Gil’s in an important season, as the luster really faded from him last year after an AL Rookie of the Year win in 2024.
It’s safe to say things could have gone better on Friday. Four rocky innings of work and 88 pitches were the final tally, and to be completely honest, this was—for large stretches of his outing—2025 Gil all over again, struggling to throw strikes and to consistently generate swings and misses.
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Gil allowed three runs on three hits and three walks in the four frames, striking out two. He also threw a wild pitch and hit a batter in the disappointing outing.
After struggling with velocity for much of the spring, Gil averaged 95.1 mph on his four-seamer on Friday against the Rays, down from the 95.3 mph of 2025 and a more impactful 96.6 the year before. This pitch was his bread and butter in 2024, when he won Rookie of the Year, but it just earned one swing-and-miss on 13 swings for a meager eight-percent whiff rate. For reference, the fastball earned an 18.8-percent whiff rate in 2025 and a 28.5-percent whiff rate in 2024.
For the night, Gil got just five empty swings: three on his slider, which he struggled to fully command, one on his changeup, and one on his four-seamer.
Gil threw 38 balls and 50 strikes on the night, but he was all over the place with all his pitches:
Gil opened the game trying to establish the four-seamer and complementing it mainly with sliders. He got two quick outs in the first inning before running into trouble, walking Jonathan Aranda and hanging this slider to Yandy Díaz, who gladly deposited it in the right field stands for a game-tying two-run dinger:
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What looked like a quick and painless opening frame for Gil turned into a 32-pitch inning that set the tone for the rest of his outing and immediately capped his upside to go relatively deep into the game.
The second time through the lineup, Gil started to introduce more sinkers and changeups. The former actually helped him get five called strikes and led to a 57.9-mph average exit velocity in three batted-ball events, with just one of them going for a hit. One could argue that, with better command, the pitch could potentially be useful. It doesn’t look like a huge difference-making offering, though.
It’s hard to envision a successful Gil without better control, command, and velocity. Take away those three things, and his ceiling is severely capped.
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It’s also important for him to maintain his velo deep into his outings. The pitch averaged 95.8 mph in the opening frame, and then slipped to 94.4 mph in the second, 93.8 mph in the third, and 94.4 mph again in the fourth. His sinker did average 96.6 mph in the third, though, but Gil just won’t be successful if he’s sitting in the 93-94 mph range.
Gil did make a nice defensive play on a squeeze play attempt by the Rays in the fourth, preventing another run from scoring. So at least his glove helped him out a little bit.
It’s still early. Heck, it’s Gil’s first start of the season. We are willing to grant him a pass, as we shouldn’t be judging a pitcher using just one outing. However, one thing needs to be said: given that this more of the same frustrating Gil, he will need to pick it up soon if he doesn’t want to be at serious risk of losing his rotation spot whenever Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodón return. Unlike in the ALDS, he is fully behind Will Warren on the depth chart.
