Yankees Made Right Call on Luis Gil

The Right Call — For Now

For now, it is the right decision, though, because one start — good or bad — should not change the entire trajectory of their plans. It will be important for Gil to keep showing what he did in that last outing, but in Scranton. Carlos Rodon is still on track to return early on, and even if the veteran lefty, who had his best season with the Yankees last year, slots into that fifth spot by the time he is ready to go, that doesn't fully mean Gil will be stuck in AAA.

There's a shot that Weathers doesn't perform, and he'll need to do some tinkering of his own. For a team that is hoping to compete for a World Series and understands how important every win is after losing out on the division by a hair on the last day of the season, if Gil is performing up to his standards and Weathers is hemorrhaging runs, it should be an easy move to slot him into the newest trade addition's spot.

Then there is always the chance of injury. Just like with Jasson Dominguez, who will, unfortunately, also start the year in the minors, they'll both have to bide their time in case something goes wrong for the big league club. Gil might have an easier time finding a spot, though, because, with rotations, rarely are they intact over the long haul of a season. Gil would be the first one up if something goes wrong.

Blake on Gil

According to pitching coach Matt Blake, Gil understands the team's situation with the off-days. For Blake and the rest of the Yankees organization, it was a matter of keeping him in rhythm for the season.

"He'd like to be a starter with us, so it's frustrating," Blake said, according to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "But at the same time, he understands the position we're in with the way the schedule lines up for the first two weeks. Now it's a matter of making sure we do right by him and keep him in rhythm, and also find the best balance for the bullpen and our starting group."

While Gil will not be with the team on their trip to San Francisco, Blake says that the last start was still encouraging. Gil was in a good place, which wasn't something he could say over the last year.

"We feel good about the adjustment he made going into the last outing," Blake said. "He got the quality of the fastball back -- the velo up, the miss. All of those things are important to see. Now it's just a matter of what that looks like the first couple of weeks of the season."

The positive of Gil heading to AAA is not just about seeing if what he flashed at the end of the spring is for real, but it really says a lot about where the Yankees are healthwise. Outside of what they knew already with Rodon and Gerrit Cole, they have been injury-free for the most part.

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