Luis Gil's latest spring blowup should have Yankees on verge of drastic rotation move

Luis Gil, in his attempt to shake off his injury from 2025 and get back on track, has not done enough during spring training for New York Yankees fans to feel comfortable about him undertaking a full workload in the starting rotation for 2026.

On Sunday against the Detroit Tigers, the right-hander got absolutely shelled, surrendering seven earned runs on nine hits (three homers) and two walks across just three innings of work. It's obvious he's just working through some stuff and is more focused on getting the proper reps rather than blanking the opposition, but the results have perhaps been too far in the wrong direction.

Though his fastball velocity is seemingly on the mend, his location still needs a ton of work — but for different reasons.

Typically, Gil has struggled greatly with walks, but he was able to make up for it with his high strikeout rate. His "effectively wild" nature threw off hitters greatly in 2024, which helped him earn Rookie of the Year honors.

But this spring, he's locating far too much in the zone, and it's resulted in a ton of hard contact (six home runs) and an astounding 19 hits (.311 opponents' average). He's walked only four batters, but you can see the vast difference in his ability when he's allowing excessive free passes vs excessive contact.

Luis Gil is running out of time to prove to Yankees he belongs in starting rotation

Maybe the Yankees already have their minds made up (we wouldn't be surprised). In that case, Gil is probably the fourth or fifth starter to begin 2026 and they will handle it from there. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

But if they're genuinely allowing the pitching staff to battle it out this spring, then there needs to be some sort of recourse with Gil, who should be handled carefully given how highly the Yankees think of him (remember, it was rumored that they refused to trade him in a deal for Kyle Tucker last offseason).

In that case, why not just start him in long relief once Opening Day rolls around so he still has the opportunities to get in the necessary work but isn't pressured to definitively prove himself with each and every outing? Aaron Boone can erase innings using Gil in various situations, from blowouts to bullpen rest days to competitive situations.

Look no further to when Devin Williams was demoted last year after he was dealing with some pitch-mix and mechanical issues. He was able to work out the kinks and get his reps in low-leverage situations before returning to handle high leverage (and he was effective for multiple stretches even though the overall numbers didn't show it).

Gil is 27 years old and coming off a complicated injury that left him with limited time to work through it last year. He's healthy now and there's plenty of runway in front of him with a 162-game season on the horizon. There's no need to throw him in the fire when Ryan Yarbrough is ready to slip into the rotation.

Call it "drastic," but at this point Gil should be heavily considered as a candidate for the bullpen to help the Yankees avoid difficult conversations on either end of the pitching staff in the early going of the campaign.