Pedro Martinez: Luis Gil has potential to be ‘really special’

Pedro Martinez: Luis Gil has potential to be ‘really special’

There were questions surrounding the back-end of the New York Yankees rotation heading into the 2024 season after it was announced that ace and reigning AL CY Young winner Gerrit Cole would miss multiple months with an elbow injury.

While the rotation hasn’t been perfect, the five-man unit has held it together through 38 games. They are top-10 in baseball in ERA and are top-5 in strikeout rate, which are respectable marks. One reason why it hasn’t completely fallen apart is because of the emergence of 25-year-old arm Luis Gil, who missed all of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery.

Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, one of the greatest pitchers ever, had high praise for Gil earlier this week.

“I love what I’m seeing from this kid,” Martinez said Tuesday. “[Gil] has the opportunity to become really special if they let him mature and get accustomed to doing what he needs to do. He’s still raw, make no mistake about it, he’s still raw. But as you can see in an abbreviated time in the big leagues, he’s shown that he can be special and I hope they continue to let him pitch in the starting rotation and not have him wander around. I would love to see him to stick to that every 5-6 day rotation and get the feel for what he wants to do.”

Through seven starts, Gil sports a 2.92 ERA, 3.81 FIP and a 29.4 strikeout rate. In his last start Tuesday against Houston, he threw six innings of one-hit, one-run ball with five strikeouts.

His bugaboo is his control.

Gil possesses an electric fastball, a frisbee-like changeup and a wipeout slider. Contextualizing everything, his numbers are pretty impressive given Gil–nor anyone else–knows where his pitches are going half the time. He’s got exceptional stuff, but leads MLB in walks (24) and places in the 7th percentile in walk rate, per Baseball Savant.

Conversely, he does grade in the 75th percentile or better in whiff rate (29.9; 77th), strikeout rate (85th) and hard-hit rate (83rd). It’s not all bad, but hearing Martinez praise him the way he does is always a positive sign.

It’s unclear whether or not Gil will remain in the rotation upon Cole’s arrival or if they’ll move to a six-man rotation. I’d lean toward the latter–especially at the beginning–but it’s not my call.

New York, currently at 25-13, is tied for the American League lead with AL East rival Baltimore. The biggest reason for the team’s success has been its offense–led by Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo–and its lights-out bullpen. But the rotation’s production–albeit in a small sample–can’t be ignored. They’ve gotten bounce-back campaigns from Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt thus far. It’s hard to complain about its outlook this early into the season, even if some team-wide regression is projected (per FIP, xFIP) along the way.

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