For the 10th time in their franchise’s history, a Yankee was named American League Rookie of the Year, as MLB announced that right-hander Luis Gil took home the award on Monday night.
Gil beat out Orioles OF Colton Cowser (second place) and teammate C Austin Wells (third place) for the honor.
The 26-year-old finished the regular season 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA and 1.19 WHIP to go along with 171 strikeouts in 151.2 innings of work across 29 starts. His 15 wins were second-most on the team, only behind left-hander Carlos Rodon (16), and tied for seventh-most in MLB.
Gil began his rookie campaign by making New York’s Opening Day roster after an impressive spring training that saw him go 2-0 with a 2.87 ERA (0.83 WHIP) in five games (three starts) while proving he had electric stuff as evidenced by his 23 strikeouts in 15.2 innings as well as a .127 batting average against.
The right-hander showed early on that those numbers were legit and really came into his own in May where he went 6-0 with a 0.70 ERA, capped off by an eight-inning performance against the Los Angeles Angels on May 29 where he allowed one run on two hits and struck out nine to lower his season ERA to 1.99.
Gil began June rolling right along with another spectacular outing against the Minnesota Twins who signed him as an international free agent in 2015. He went six scoreless innings and allowed just one hit to grab his eighth win of the season and lower his ERA to a season-best 1.82.
Possibly due to fatigue, things took a turn from there as the Dominican Republic native ended the month with a 6.45 ERA (1.61 WHIP) in five starts.
Gil steadied himself nicely in July, owning a 3.33 ERA (1.04 WHIP) in five starts, but he had another setback in August where he pitched to a 5.25 ERA (2.08 WHIP) in three starts. In his final start of the month on Aug. 20 against the Cleveland Guardians, Gil only went three innings and walked six batters before exiting the game with a lower back strain that landed him on the 15-day IL.
The right-hander returned on Sept. 6 and was dominant in his first start against the Chicago Cubs, going six scoreless innings and allowing one hit. Gil pitched well enough in the final month of the regular season to go 3-1 and helped contribute to a win in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Guardians and started in the Yankees’ lone win in Game 4 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Congratulations to Luis on an amazing season,” said manager Aaron Boone in a statement on Monday night. “He worked so hard to put himself in a strong position heading into spring training after coming back from Tommy John surgery. Without a guarantee of a Major League spot, he absolutely kicked in the door this spring and went on to have a phenomenal rookie season.
“Luis continued to mature and develop all year and was one of the pillars of our rotation. I can’t wait to see what’s next for such a talented, young pitcher.”
Despite appearing in parts of the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Gil retained his rookie status heading into the 2024 season because he did not exceed the 50 innings pitched threshold nor was he on New York’s active roster for more than 45 days.
Gil joins fellow Yankee rookies Aaron Judge (2017), Derek Jeter (1996), Dave Righetti (1981), Thurman Munson (1970), Stan Bahnsen (1968), Tom Tresh (1962), Tony Kubek (1957), Bob Grim (1954) and Gil McDougald (1951) to win the AL Rookie of the Year. He’s also the first American League starting pitcher to win the award since Michael Fulmer in 2016.
