TAMPA — The search for the 2024 Luis Gil continues.
There is still time to find it, but the Yankees right-hander will not have forever.
In his penultimate start of the spring, Gil had a game to forget Sunday, getting tagged for three home runs, nine hits and seven runs across three innings against the Tigers.
The former AL Rookie of the Year needed 68 pitches to get nine outs, and while his velocity took another slight tick up, he lacked command and overall crispness, making for a rough afternoon.
“I feel like we’re closer right now [to Gil’s 2024 version] than we were last year, but ultimately these next steps are the big ones — really capturing the life on the fastball and then creating some space for the secondary,” pitching coach Matt Blake said after a 12-1 loss to the Tigers at Steinbrenner Field.
Asked if Gil is a lock for the rotation, Aaron Boone described him as “one of the five guys.”
But the Yankees have four off-days before their 10th game of the season, so they are still trying to figure out how to best manage the rotation in the first two weeks to keep everyone sharp.
Gil has a minor league option remaining, but the Yankees could also piggyback one starter with another if they decide to carry all five on the Opening Day roster (and that is before they eventually have to make space in the rotation once Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole return from the IL).
That places some extra significance on Gil’s final start of the spring later this week, when he will have another chance to prove he is still capable of getting back to his 2024 form, when he was one of the more dominant pitchers in the first half of the season.
“At the end of the day, I got to concentrate on what I need to do,” Gil said through an interpreter. “For me, [being consistent] is the focus and that’s the key, to control what I can control and work on my craft and be as consistent as possible. … It takes time to get there, to be at 100 percent, and I think that’s what’s important.”
Gil, who missed four months last year with a lat strain, averaged 95.8 mph with his fastball Sunday (up from 95.3 in 2025) and topped out at 97.5.
But he only got two whiffs on 19 swings against the fastball, after not generating any on 18 swings against it in his last outing.
“That’s definitely something we’re looking into,” Blake said. “The profile from ’24 to now is slightly different. There’s a little bit less ride to it from a little bit slower slot. Sometimes that’ll play into the visibility of the pitch, the life above the barrel, those type of things. But the velos started to trend up as the spring’s gone on, so you feel like it’s improving.
“Ultimately, the batters will tell you, so we got to find a way to get some miss and stay off the barrel with it.”
Of the three home runs Gil gave up Sunday, one came on a changeup down the middle to Spencer Torkelson, one came on a slider on the inner third of the plate to Matt Vierling, and the last came on a 95 mph fastball on the inner third to Riley Greene.
He came away from the outing encouraged by the uptick on his fastball but displeased with his changeup.
Boone, who acknowledged earlier this spring that he still wanted to see more from Gil, was asked if he has seen enough with a week left in camp.
“I’ve seen a lot of good from Luis and again, it’s ticked up every time,” Boone said. “I want him to get back to where that first half of ’24, that next level of electricity with the heater. He’s still having trouble right now getting swing-and-miss with the heater. But it’s the whole package. But I also don’t want to ignore a lot of the good that’s gone on in some of the starts he’s had as well. So this was a rough one today, without question, but we got to get back and keep working on it.”