On a day in which the New York Yankees got the news that ace pitcher Gerrit Cole will be getting an MRI on his right elbow, they at least got an encouraging performance from a depth hurler.
Luis Gil, who is sixth or seventh on the Yankees’ starting pitching depth chart and used all of the 2023 campaign to recover from Tommy John surgery, had an outing to remember on Monday.
As Talkin’ Yanks tweeted, Gil managed to strike out eight members of the Philadelphia Phillies lineup on Monday.
Eight punchouts from Luis Gil out of the pen pic.twitter.com/QBRwhakwTk
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) March 11, 2024
The day started with four scoreless innings by fellow depth pitcher Clayton Beeter.
Then Gil took over, and stayed on the mound for the next 3.2 frames.
Over that workload, Gil allowed just a hit and a walk, striking out eight Phillies hitters.
The Phils had a lot of projected regulars in action: Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, and more.
That makes Beeter and Gil’s performance all the more impressive.
Depending on what Cole’s MRI says, the Yankees might need a fifth starter at some point in April, and Beeter and Gil would both be candidates in that hypothetical scenario.
Beeter took his spring ERA down to a rock-solid 2.00, while Gil is at 3.24.
Gil has a control problem, usually losing the strike zone.
However, when he is on and can harness his stuff, he is close to unhittable.
It’s likely that, in the event of an injury, Gil is the next man up.
He has enormous potential if he can consistently throw strikes, like he did on Monday.
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