Yankees' Luis Gil has encouraging session in return to mound

In a stretch of more than a week with few positives, the Yankees got one Saturday morning before they faced the Orioles. Luis Gil was back on the Yankee Stadium mound throwing to hitters.

This was the next major step in getting back the 2024 American League Rookie of the Year, who has been on the Injured list since suffering a significant lat strain during spring training. The righthander threw 21 pitches in the session — some clocked in the range of 95 to 96 mph — and is expected to need at least two more sessions before he can be sent on a minor-league rehab assignment.

“I thought it looked really good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think he was 95 [or] 96 — it looked every bit of that . . . It's been a slow build-up, but it's gone well it feels like kind of every step of the way. So that's been encouraging.

“Now we start to build,” he added. “Now we start to build  . . . eventually getting into rehab games.”

Gil threw all of the pitches in his arsenal and said, “It felt really good out there. It’s been a process. You heal little by little and it felt good to get on the mound and face some hitters.”

Boone called a return for Gil before the end of July “reasonable." He said  he will not be rushed back to the Yankees’ rotation and that the most realistic determination for when he can return to his spot will be when he builds up to 75 or 80 pitches in a minor-league rehab outing. When a pitcher’s endurance is being built, he typically adds 10 to 15 pitches per outing.

Gil had a remarkable 2024 season, going 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA and striking out 171 in 151 2/3 innings. He said he cannot wait to get back into games with his teammates.

“[I’m] very eager,” he said through interpreter Marlon Abreu. “From the moment you go through an injury like this, immediately you want to get back on the field. It's about competing, helping your team and being out there with those guys. So [I’m] eager to get back out there.”

“It is still a ways off but, obviously, what he could bring would definitely be a good shot in the arm,” Boone said, “kind of maybe [like] one of those trade-deadline [additions].”

Gil has had only one small hitch on the road back, a brief pause early in his throwing program, but things have unfolded smoothly since then.

“The process has been very good, but your mentality has to be very strong in order to go through it and keep a strong mindset through the long time off the field,” Gil said.

Gil suffered an elbow injury in May 2022 that required Tommy John surgery and sidelined him until late in the 2023 season. He said the experience of traveling a long road back to good health after that injury helped him this time around.

“For me, it's the second injury where I spent some time out of the field,” he said. “What you learn the first time during the process: One of the key things is how focused you got to be following the work that's ahead of you, having really good discipline with it, sticking with it and getting back as soon as you can.”

Boone suggested that Gil’s 2024 season was not just about performance but also learning to handle things when they aren’t going right. Gil opened the season 8-1 with a 1.82 ERA before going 1-3 with an 8.85 ERA in his next five starts. He went 5-2 with a 2.65 ERA in  his next 10 starts before closing out the regular season with two rough outings.

“He’s coming off of a really special season last year where he was so important for us and I think [he] went through a lot of really good growth moments too,” Boone said. “For winning the [AL] Rookie of the Year and having an outstanding year, he had some struggles along the way, too, and kind of navigated those.”

Long journey for Brubaker 

Reliever JT Brubaker, who allowed the only Baltimore hit in the Yankees’ 9-0 victory on Saturday, crossed the finish line of a long journey, as he hadn’t pitched in a major-league game since Oct. 4, 2022. While with Pittsburgh, he suffered an elbow injury that cost him all of the 2023 season, and the Yankees traded for him before the 2024 season, expecting him to complete the recovery. An oblique injury limited him to eight minor-league appearances in 2024 and he fractured three ribs in a 2025 exhibition game before being brought off the injured list on Wednesday.

“The journey has been long [with] lot of adversity, and really, the love of the game is what kept me going no matter where I was,” Brubaker said. “I'm glad I'm here and just the knowledge that the Yankees [believed] kept the love of baseball going in my heart and my mind. The road to get back to a big-league mound was the goal and I can say that I did it.”

Extra bases

Catcher J.C. Escarra had a career-best three hits and is slashing .308/.391/.538 in his last 13 starts . . . Anthony Volpe, who was in an 0-for-25 slide after his first at-bat Saturday, had three hits — a dribbler down the third-base line that stayed fair, a home run just inside the rightfield foul pole and a blooper into shallow rightfield . . . The Yankees sold out the Stadium for the 10th time this season . . . The Yankees pitched their  eighth shutout of the season.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.