Keith & C-Mac: Yankees have failed if Luis Gil is in bullpen come October
As Luis Gil continues to make his case to start the All-Star Game for the American League, questions linger as to how many innings the electric starter will be able to log before the Yankees decide to slow him down in his first season removed from Tommy John surgery.
Keith and C-Mac agree that the Yanks can’t afford to send Gil to the bullpen in an all-in season, where they would be sidelining their best starting pitcher right now, and arguably the best in the league.
“Every start that he has, I’m impressed with. So I’m not jumping to him being in a bullpen spot or his arm falling off or him being on an innings limit,” Keith said. “Let him keep throwing. He’s young and he’s been waiting for this…we’ll deal with is when it’s time to deal with it.”
C-Mac was in complete agreement, and says the Yanks can find ways around his innings concerns, but it can’t end in Gil going to the bullpen, and the team sacrificing its current ace (at least until Gerrit Cole returns, but Gil has incredibly been better than Cole was in his Cy Young season last year).
“There is no way in hell I am putting Luis Gil in the bullpen,” C-Mac said. “Matt Blake and this Yankee organization develop relievers…I trust this bullpen can find a way to get some guys going, and maybe trade for a guy they see value in.
“They can figure out a way to get him to the end of the year. You can skip starts, have him pitch the week before the All-Star break and then don’t give him a start leading in, then put him in the back of the rotation coming out so that gives him two weeks without a start. There is a way to manipulate his innings to where you don’t have to put him in the bullpen.
“If he is not making a start in the playoffs, then the Yankees have failed…if they can’t figure out a way to get him to the postseason as a starter…you have to figure that out.”
