In the late hours following a 7-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 2, 2021 in a game known for a cat running on the field and Andrew Heaney allowing four homers, the Yankees announced Gerrit Cole was going on the injured list due to testing positive for COVID-19. In mid-March, the Yankees announced Cole came down with a right elbow injury with an uncertain timeline for recovery that ultimately became a 75-game absence.

Each time, Luis Gil was anointed by the Yankees to step in and he fared well, especially this season when his 15 wins were among the statistical categories deemed good enough by BBWAA voters for the American League’s rookie of the year award. Gil won the award in the second-closest AL Cy Young race since 1980 with a margin of 15 first-place votes and 106 points over Baltimore’s Colton Cowser (13 first-place votes and 101 points) and teammate Austin Wells, who spent the bulk of the summer hitting and thriving in the cleanup spot behind Aaron Judge and ahead of Giancarlo Stanton. The closest race was 2003 when future random Met and Yankee Angel Berroa beat out Hideki Matsui with an 88-84 margin.

Gill was particularly strong during Cole’s absence on his way to going 15-7 with a 3. 50 ERA in 29 starts on the way to 171 strikeouts in 151 2/3 innings. He was 9-1 with a 2.

03 ERA in 14 starts while Cole rehabbed frequently seemed to be a threat for a no-hitter of a low-hit game and highlighted things with a 14-strikeout game against the Chicago White Sox on May 18. Overall, Gil allowed one run or less 17 times, three hits or less 14 times, while completing six innings 10 times and opponents batted . 142 off him while Cole recovered.

The 17 starts of one run or fewer tied Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet for the most in the game this season and the second-most since the mound was moved to 60 feet and six inches according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The record is held by George McQuillan, who produced 21 such starts for the 1908 Phillies in a season when he made 32 starts and pitched 359 2/3 innings in the second season of a 10-year career that saw him appear in 268 games for Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. “It means so much to me.

I’m so happy about being able to win this award,” Gil said through an interpreter during his conference call. “Everybody in my corner, they’re so happy for me and so proud. I’m also proud of the opportunity that was given to me by the team.

It turned out to be a good season for me, a great experience. ”Gil was not necessarily an afterthought in spring training but coming off a year of recovering from Tommy John surgery, there was an unknown element. The Yankees saw him impress in short bursts in 2021 when he struck out 38 in 29 1/3 innings in six starts and those early glimpses occurred after Gil began that year as the Yankees’ fourth-best prospect according to Baseball America and then posted a 4.

13 ERA in 15 starts between Double and Triple-A before promoting him. Often during the regular season when discussing Gil’s season, manager Aaron Boone would often revert back to recollections about being awed by his stuff in a spring training start against the Philadelphia Phillies when he struck out eight in 3 2/3 innings of one-hit ball. “I always go back to that outing in Clearwater where he was already sent down to Minor League camp and we brought him over,” Boone said earlier this year.

He just kind of overwhelmed the Phillies that day with his stuff, has taken it and not really stopped. ”After seizing control of his opportunity, Gil was good enough to become the first Yankee rookie pitcher to win the award since Dave Righetti in 1981. And with Paul Skenes edging out Jackson Merrill in the National League, it marked the first time since 1981 starting pitchers captured those honors with Fernando Valenzuela doing so after “Fernandomania” burst onto the scene as one of the highlights of a strike-shortened season that spoiled the daily summer rhythms of the sport.

The next step for Gil is to keep the strikeouts coming, producing outs he hopes lands in Juan Soto’s glove in right field while also cutting down on the walks and it is something certainly on his mind. “For me, it has to do with control and command,” Gil said. “That’s what I really want to take the next step in my career.

Given the opportunity to pitch, I think that’s something I can keep improving as I keep growing. ”The next step in his growth will not be someone competing for the fifth spot in the rotation but someone who was considered flier in a 2018 spring training trade for Jake Cave that was made with the Minnesota Twins because the Yankees had a glut of outfielders at the time. “We took a flier,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters during the playoffs last month.

“One of those lottery tickets, and that’s how it came out. He was so far away. Most of those times, the lottery tickets don’t cash in, right?

And in this rare occurrence, it did. ”I always go back to that outing in Clearwater,” manager Aaron Boone said, “where he was already sent down to Minor League camp and we brought him over. He just kind of overwhelmed the Phillies that day with his stuff, has taken it and not really stopped.

”I’m definitely proud of the season that I was able to put together,” Gil said through an interpreter. “Health was a very important aspect of it. I was able to do that, to stay healthy and stay on the field.

From Day 1, really locking in on the days that I pitched [and] maturing as the season went on definitely is one of the reasons why I’m here where I am today. ”This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.