Yankees' Luis Gil Expected to Miss At Least 3 Months With Lat Injury, Cashman Says

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters on Thursday that starting pitcher Luis Gil is being sent back to New York to undergo additional testing on his high-grade lat strain.

He also projected Gil would have a three-month recovery time, with the hope that he'll return "sometime in the summer."

"It's definitely not the best feeling when they tell you something like that," Gil told reporters Monday regarding his prognosis. "You're not waiting for news like that. It's a tough moment right there to digest. You've got to start thinking of how to move forward, whatever the journey might be."

His teammate, Clarke Schmidt, suffered the same injury last season and missed about 3.5 months.

"It's a big muscle, especially for throwing," he told reporters. "You can't hide from it. If you have other injuries or other things going on, sometimes you can make compromises and figure out ways to keep throwing with it. But this, you feel it every time you're throwing. Everything you do, you feel it."

Gil's injury means the Yankees will likely start the 2025 season with a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Schmidt and Marcus Stroman. Carlos Carrasco, Will Warren and Allan Winans will be next in line if any of those five suffers an injury.

Losing Gil is a big blow, however. The 26-year-old was the American League Rookie of the Year last season after posting a 15-7 record with a 3.50 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 171 strikeouts in 151.2 innings (29 starts). He was a huge factor in the Yankees ultimately reaching the World Series.

"You end the season with that desire to keep on going out there and competing," he told reporters. "When you get news like this, it's definitely not easy to swallow."