Yankees Prospect Profile: Get to Know Luis Gil

New York Yankees top pitching prospect Luis Gil has a nasty curve.

The New York Yankees’ stock of minor-league arms consists of, outside of Clarke Schmidt, some truly electric lower-level options, all of whom could be front-line starters in the coming years.

And perhaps the biggest steal of the bunch over the past few seasons is Luis Gil, the current No. 5 Yankees prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

Still just 22 years old, the lanky 6-3 Gil will bring his easy cheese and nasty breaker to High-A Tampa whenever minor-league baseball resumes. As of now, he looks like a good one.

Gil’s touched 101, but sits in the high-90s with his fastball, working through the typical growing pains that will determine whether or not he’ll be a future mid-rotation starter or a monstrous bullpen arm who can air it out for an inning or two.

As is the case for most things in modern history, the Yankees can thank the Minnesota Twins for Gil, too. New York acquired Gil in early 2018 in exchange for…40-man roster casualty Jake Cave, who you may remember as the guy who struggled mightily to hit Luis Severino in Game 3 of the 2019 ALDS.

The stuff has always been there for Gil, but he surprisingly hadn’t started a campaign on a full-season roster before 2019, when he emerged at Single-A Charleston. There, he went 4-5 with a 2.39 ERA, striking out 112 in 83.0 high-level innings pitched before scuffling after a promotion to High-A. His 2019 walk rate of 4.2 per nine innings could be improved upon, sure, but it still serves as his career-best mark.

We’d call Gil an untouchable right now, forming the Yankees’ top-tier prospect trio with Schmidt and Deivi Garcia. Possessing the highest upside of any of the low-minors arms that have only recently established themselves stateside, it’s a serious shame that Gil will probably not play a 2020 season in any capacity — he’s far too inexperienced to make an expanded 30-man MLB roster of any kind.

Hopefully, the work he’s able to get done still pushes his developmental needle forward. We’d rather have him than Jake Cave, regardless.