Bump in the road or ominous sign: Has Luis Gil hit a wall after his red-hot start?
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Luis Gil‘s former coach remembers the first time he realized his player was different. It was at a tournament in BanĆ in early 2013. Gil was a skinny 14-year-old shortstop turned pitcher because hitting clearly wasn’t his thing. He was scheduled to pitch the next game, but he had been dealing with command issues, so his coach informed him he wasn’t going to start. Gil lost it.
“He said, ‘Damn! It’s my turn!'” the coach, who goes by Francisco DĆaz, said in Spanish with a laugh. “And I said, ‘Relax, you’re going to pitch a lot.’ He always had fire to throw hard all that time. That spirit, that desire. Like, ‘It’s me, it’s me, it’s me.’ Very competitive.”
DĆaz is a buscĆ³n — a part-agent, part-trainer for Dominican teenagers seeking to sign with major-league organizations. He spoke over the phone last week from the Dominican Republic as players practiced in the background. Players he hopes will one day reach Gil’s heights thousands of miles away.
Over a decade since that tournament in BanĆ, Gil is on pace to pitch more than he ever has in a season as a 26-year-old rookie for the New York Yankees. For six weeks, from his start May 1 through June 14, Gil was arguably the best pitcher in the American League, on a surefire path to the All-Star Game with a 1.14 ERA and 61 strikeouts over nine starts after an April hindered by command trouble.
In two outings since, he’s resembled the inexperienced hurler not far removed from Tommy John surgery that he is. The right-hander has given up 12 runs across 5 ā innings over those two games, a regression that corresponds with an unfamiliar workload amid a rotation-wide nosedive.
Gil has never thrown more than 108 ā innings in a season as a professional. He logged just four innings in 2023 — all in the Florida State League — in his first game action since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2021. This season, he’s already logged 85 ā innings after his 4 ā -inning performance in a loss to the Mets on Wednesday.
So, is he tired?
“Of course, that’s the question,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday night. “We’ll see. He seems to be in a really good physical place.”
Gil provided a straightforward answer.
“No, I really don’t [feel tired],” said Gil, whose ERA ballooned from 2.03 to 3.15 in one week. “I’m healthy, thank God, and I feel very strong, really.”
GIL’S WORKLOAD WASN’T supposed to be a storyline for a Yankees club suddenly reeling in early July after a blistering opening stanza to the season. It’s become important only because Yankees ace Gerrit Cole got hurt.
The Yankees had their starting rotation set heading into spring training — and Gil was slated to begin the season in the minors. That was until March 16, when the Yankees announced Cole would be shut down for at least three weeks with elbow discomfort.
Replacing the reigning American League Cy Young winner would be impossible, but Gil had already made an impression on the Yankees.
Five days before Cole was shut down, Gil faced the Philadelphia Phillies‘ A-lineup in Clearwater, Florida — a group that featured Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner. He tossed 3 ā scoreless innings in relief, allowing one run, one walk and striking out eight. He emerged confident that he belonged at the highest level.
“That was one that we said, ‘Oh, we got to pay attention here,'” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said.
Gil’s stuff has never been in doubt. He’s always boasted a sharp slider with a fastball that flirts with triple digits — and looks even more explosive with his above-average extension. The arm talent prompted the Yankees in March 2018 to ask for a gangly 19-year-old Gil from the Minnesota Twins in a trade for outfielder Jake Cave.
Three years later, Gil began his major-league career with 15 ā scoreless innings over three starts in August 2021, but his shortcomings became apparent in his final three outings. To become a long-term big-league starter, Gil needed to improve his command and develop a reliable third pitch.
For Gil, the challenge was mastering his changeup, a pitch he threw just 44 times in his 33 ā major league innings between 2021 and 2022. The breakthrough finally happened during Gil’s lowest professional point, while rehabbing from his elbow surgery last year and into the offseason in the Dominican Republic, where he traveled 140 kilometers roundtrip every day from his home in Azua to San Juan to work with a trainer.
“He attacked the rehab with, ‘I’m not just going to get healthy, I’m going to improve myself and the changeup is a major focus here,'” Blake said.
Gil has thrown the pitch 29.3% of the time at an average of 91.6 mph. Opponents are batting .188 with a .300 slugging percentage against it. Baseball Savant’s Run Value metric grades it as a well above-average pitch and his second-best offering this season.
Cole, whom Gil credits for aiding him during and between starts, explained Gil uses the changeup to rediscover the strike zone or when looking for a strikeout. Cole said the offering helps Gil keep hitters off his fastball, darting in the opposite direction of his slider.
“That’s when you see a game like what he had against the White Sox where now we’ve got three pitches,” Cole said, “a nice three-pitch blend.”
Gil was a force in that game at Yankee Stadium in mid-May, striking out a career-high 14 batters across six innings. But Cole was more impressed by his previous outing, when Gil held the Tampa Bay Rays scoreless over six innings despite finishing with just three strikeouts.
“He made an adjustment in the middle of the game on the rubber,” Cole said. “He made a cognizant adjustment with the fastball to improve his location through the game. And he manifested the same run prevention that he did the following week with his A-plus stuff.”
That, Cole said, was an example of Gil’s high aptitude. For over a month, as Cole spectated from the injured list, Gil made it look easy. Then the Baltimore Orioles chased him from a 17-5 beating after 1 ā innings on June 20 by taking away his fastball and feasting on missed locations. The New York Mets followed, knocking him from the game with one out in the fifth inning last week.
He surrendered 12 runs between the two duds — five more than he allowed in his previous nine outings combined — as his innings count approaches uncharted territory. His velocity has largely held around his average, but command has been the snag. A lack of consistency with his fastball, in particular, was a problem against the Mets.
“The shape of his fastball, the release point of it, some were good where he popped and he had the carry in the zone, others he was kind of cutting or pulling a little bit,” Boone said after Gil’s start against the Mets. “Just having a hard time just owning his delivery.”
Boone insisted this two-start snag is “part of it” — part of the grind of a season, and nothing more.
“There are moments like this in baseball,” Gil said. “For me, pitch execution is really important. It’s something that I’ve been working on. I definitely want that to be better, but, at the same time, it’s all a learning experience, too, going through moments like that.”
THOSE AROUND GIL say he reported to spring training this season more mature and focused than ever. Gil attributed the growth to gaining new perspective from his injury and his daughter, Samantha, born shortly after he underwent Tommy John surgery.
“When I got hurt, I was sad because it’s an injury that takes a long time to recover from,” Gil said in Spanish. “When she was born, that gave me a push to keep working hard and put more dedication to the job.”
It’s been a job for Gil since he was 16, when the Twins signed him for $90,000 in 2015 after three years under DĆaz’s tutelage. The price tag meant Gil wasn’t considered a top-tier prospect. His fastball touched 91 mph. He was scrawny. The measurables didn’t scream star.
But DĆaz, who is still in touch regularly with Gil, has always suspected there was potential to unearth. He’s overseen several future major leaguers. Luis Castillo, a Seattle Mariners starter in his eighth season, is the most accomplished. But, in DĆaz’s opinion, the three-time All-Star is not the most talented.
“If Gil is healthy and he can control his pitches, nobody is better than Luis Gil,” DĆaz said. “I told somebody I worked with that Gil is better than Castillo. He’s better.”
But stuff alone doesn’t equal success at the highest level. Success requires constant tinkering and adjustments. It requires peppering the strike zone and the durability to withstand a 162-game schedule. Gil is absorbing that on the brightest stage for an organization with championship-or-bust expectations.
“He’s a young pitcher that hasn’t pitched for a couple of years,” Boone said. “There’s bumps along the way.”
The Yankees have not indicated whether they plan on curtailing Gil’s workload. For now, they don’t have another obvious option to cover innings, with Clarke Schmidt on the injured list until late this month.
“I think it’s something we’re aware of and trying to be on top of as much as we can,” Blake said before Gil’s start Wednesday. “It’s just taking as many data points as you can about where he’s at, whether it’s just the pitch count itself. Whether it’s the release point in the pitch metrics. Whether it’s the work inside the weight room and the training room, what that looks like.
“I think all those things kind of inform you a little bit of where he’s at and where he’s trending and try to make a little more informed decision, even though it’s not perfect.”
For six weeks, Gil provided the club an unforeseen jolt every fifth day. He was, for that stretch, a luxury fill-in for a club gliding through series victory after series victory. Now the Yankees, desperate for wins, need him to bounce back to help reverse their freefall.
“No one expected it to be easy,” Boone said.
While fans in Edmonton and Dallas are always singing about how they have friends in low places, only one of them has the high ground in the Western Conference finals. And that’s the Oilers after their 6-1 win Sunday in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
With the series tied heading into Sunday, the objective for Game 3 was to gain a firm grasp of the conference finals, and the Oilers did just that by having five players with multipoint performances. As for the Stars, losing Game 3 left them trailing a series for the second time this postseason, with the only other such occurrence coming after Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Now that the Oilers are in control of the series, what does it mean for them going forward? What must the Stars do differently ahead of Game 4 for them to return home tied rather than a game away from elimination? Ryan S. Clark and Greg Wyshynski examine those questions while delving into what lies ahead for two teams that not only faced each other in the conference finals last season but between them have been involved in every conference final since 2020.
Edmonton Oilers
Grade: A
Much could change between now and whenever the playoffs end. But for now, the argument could be made that this was the most important playoff game the Oilers have had this postseason.
The Oilers have had numerous strong performances, such as Game 3 against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round or their final two games against the Vegas Golden Knights in the conference semifinals. But what made the Oilers’ performance in Game 3 against Dallas arguably their most important was that they found a balance between being difficult in the defensive zone while not relying on a shutout to accomplish that objective.
The Stars finished with 37 shots, 13 high-danger chances in 5-on-5 play and scored only once. Connor McDavid has repeatedly stressed that the Oilers can play defense, and that has been made clear over their past five games. But Sunday proved they didn’t need Stuart Skinner or their defensive structure to blank an opponent to win. — Ryan S. Clark
Dallas Stars
Grade: C+
The final score doesn’t reflect the majority of this game, which Dallas coach Pete DeBoer can mine for positives among the many (many) negatives and some mitigating circumstances. Having Roope Hintz warm up but not be able to go because of the foot injury he suffered from a Darnell Nurse slash in Game 2? That’s deflating. Having the on-ice officials miss a delay of game call on Brett Kulak in the first period only to have Evan Bouchard open the scoring 10 seconds later? Also deflating.
So it’s to the Stars’ credit that they got to their game at 5-on-5 in Game 3 better than they have in any game of the series, at least before Edmonton ran up the score in the third. The results weren’t there and a loss is a loss — and a loss by this margin is difficult to stomach — but their second period and the performances from some of their slumbering depth players give the Stars at least a glimmer.
However, there’s no question Edmonton has this thing in well in-hand and the Stars have to find a way to solve Skinner, which is not something I thought I’d be writing at this stage of the postseason. — Greg Wyshynski
Three Stars of Game 3
Two goals and an assist for his seventh career multigoal playoff game. Hyman’s second goal was the Oilers’ fourth off the rush, the most in one game by any team this postseason. Hyman also was plus-5 Sunday.
Bouchard scored his sixth goal of the postseason and these two were on the ice for the first two Edmonton goals. At 5-on-5 this postseason, the Oilers are outscoring their opponents 7-1, and 5-0 in this series, when Bouchard and Kulak are on the ice.
0:48
Connor McDavid restores Oilers’ 2-goal lead
Connor McDavid finds the back of the net to restore the Oilers’ two-goal lead vs. the Stars.
3. Connor McDavid
C, Oilers
For all the talk about the lack of goals from the best hockey player in the world (which was odd because he had 20 points in 13 games and was a plus-7 entering Game 3 despite having only three goals), McDavid punched out a pair of tucks for his sixth career multigoal playoff game. Also, seeing McDavid with the puck barreling toward the net on a 3-on-1 is nightmare fuel for opponents. — Arda Ćcal
Players to watch in Game 4
Zach Hyman
LW, Oilers
To go from 16 goals last postseason to just three goals entering Game 3 of the conference finals is one way to assess Hyman. Another is to realize that he’s been the most physical player on a team that is among the tallest and heaviest in the NHL.
Hyman came into Game 3 leading the NHL with 99 hits. He remained physical Sunday by leading the way with six hits in a game that saw the Oilers continue their punishing style with 47. But to then see Hyman score two goals and finish with three points in addition to that physicality? It once again adds to the narrative that the Oilers might not only have more dimensions than last year’s team, they could be better than the team that finished Stanley Cup runner-up in 2024. — Clark
0:53
Zach Hyman’s 2nd goal puts Oilers up 4
Zach Hyman taps home his second goal of the game to put the Oilers up 5-1 vs. the Stars.
This is the first two-game losing streak for the Dallas goaltender in the playoffs. A lot of what happened in Game 3 wasn’t necessarily on him — a Connor McDavid beauty and a Zach Hyman breakaway were among the Edmonton tallies — but outside of the third period of Game 1, he’s not been a difference-maker in this series. Oettinger came into the game leading the playoffs with 5.58 goals saved above expected, according to Stathletes. The Stars have been able to depend on him as a slump-breaker. But this is his third game with a save percentage south of .900 in the series. As the Stars try to build on some positives from this game, they need Otter to provide the foundation for it — and in the process, silence those “U.S. backup!” chants from the Oilers fans. — Wyshynski
Big questions for Game 4
Are the Oilers about to do to the Stars what they did to the Golden Knights?
Simply put, the Oilers are where hope goes to die. Teams in a championship window that have yet to win a title are always being judged on their evolution. What the Oilers did to the Stars a year ago in the conference finals by winning the last three games showed that they could close out a series after trailing. This postseason Edmonton has shown a calculated and methodical coldness when it comes to putting away opponents.
The Golden Knights won Game 3 on a last-second goal to create the belief they may have found an opening. They didn’t score again for the rest of the playoffs after being in the top five of goals per game throughout the regular season. Breaking out for six goals to open the series seemed to be a sign the Stars may have found an opening. Since then? They’ve scored only once in the last six periods while facing questions about what’s happened to another team that went from being in the top five in goals per game in the regular season. — Clark
Can Dallas make Edmonton uncomfortable at all?
Our colleague Mark Messier made this point between periods of Game 3: The Stars have yet to do anything to get McDavid or Leon Draisaitl off their games. That extends to the rest of the Oilers. Outside of an anomalous run of three power-play goals in the third period of Game 1, there have been precious few instances of the Stars carrying play for long stretches or putting a scare into Edmonton at 5-on-5.
They had that for a bit in Game 3 with a dominant second period: plus-14 in shot attempts, plus-11 in scoring chances and a 10-1 advantage in high-danger shot attempts. But they were digging out of a 2-0 hole, only managed to get one goal of their own on the board and then McDavid stuck a dagger in them with 19 seconds left in the second.
The Stars need a lead. They need zone time. They need to get their rush game going: Skinner had a .897 save percentage on shots off the rush entering the game. Edmonton is playing with a champion’s confidence. Dallas has to find a way to inject a little doubt into its opponent or this series is going to end quickly. — Wyshynski
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