What Role Will the Yankees Power Arm Play in Their ALDS Clash with the Blue Jays?
The Wild Card death series against the Boston Red Sox is over. The New York Yankees prevailed using three starters. One was curiously not on the roster for the series against Boston. Now the Yankees face another rival in the divisional series, the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the AL East Championship. Now faced with a longer series to play in the best-of-five, the Yankees have decided when and how they want to deploy their unused weapon in Luis Gil. Gil represented the one who would return late to be paired with Max Fried and Carlos Rodon to form an impressive starting staff that, along with Gerrit Cole, would serve as the formula to making the playoffs. Cole was out for the year before it started, but Gil arrived and fulfilled that prophecy.
The defending 2024 AL Rookie of the Year spent most of the 2025 season recovering from a high-grade lat strain that threatened to sideline him for good. He made enough progress to return in August to make eleven starts. His stuff is not quite as electric, and his control has been elusive, walking 33 batters in 57 innings of work. However, he has also struck out 41 batters and posted a respectable 3.32 ERA. He has pitched well enough to be the third starter until another rookie, Cam Schlittler, usurped him when the Yankees had to choose who to go with in the do-or-die third game of the Wild Card series. It turned out to be the right decision.
Now, Luis Gil is back in the conversation, and there are two ways the Yankees can best utilize their up-to-now hidden asset. They could use him as a starter or power arm out of the bullpen to build a bridge to Fernando Cruz, Devin Williams, and closer David Bednar. They mulled it over and made the choice today. Gil will start game one opposite the Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman. This is a sound decision as Max Fried would have gone on four days' rest should they have chosen him to open the series, something which has not been a strength of the Yankees' ace. They chose to buy time and use Gil to try to steal a game in Toronto. If he fails, Fried is back at full force for Game Two to get the desired split.
This also means that Gil would be the starter in a potential winner-take-all fifth game. How Gil performs tomorrow night in Rogers Centre, once known as the SkyDome, will determine if he is the man they put all their eggs into his basket this time around. The Yankees hope that they can close out a series that returns to Yankee Stadium with Rodon and Schlittler if they can split the first two. In the event it goes the distance, Gil can start, but it would be all hands on deck. No matter what scenario plays out, one thing is certain. Luis Gil is going to be an important part of this playoff round, whether the Yankees plan it this way or not.
