LUIS GIL IS COMING BACK SOON, GUYS!

Let’s all take a moment to be ridiculously grateful for the Yankees’ pitching staff this season. Despite starting the year without Gerrit Cole and high-upside arm Luis Gil, the rotation has been lights-out. Honestly, it’s been so good you almost forget the Yankees are missing two of their nastiest arms. Almost.

But now comes some spicy news from the rehab beat: Luis Gil is inching closer to a return. That’s right — the same Luis Gil who strained his right lat during a bullpen session back in spring training, Feb. 28, and landed on the 60-day IL just before the season kicked off.

Fast-forward to now, and Gil is scheduled to finally resume mound work this Friday. Yes, it’s been a minute — and yes, this is the first time he’ll throw off a mound since that lat said “no thanks” three months ago. But things are finally trending upward.

If all goes according to plan (and no new muscles rebel), we could see Gil back on the big-league mound before the trade deadline. That would give him a little time to ramp up without burning him out — which is key, considering he hit a wall last summer and ghosted his effectiveness like it was an ex.

The hope now is that general manager Brian Cashman doesn’t pull a classic Cashman and label Gil’s return as the "big midseason acquisition." Yankee fans have seen that movie before — and spoiler alert: it's not a blockbuster.

Lest we forget, Gil was diagnosed with a high-grade lat strain in March 2025, after already missing most of 2022 and 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. The guy’s been through it. He started a throwing program in late April, eyeing a return in late June, maybe early July.

If his progress holds up, he could be back just in time to give the Yankees an extra jolt heading into the dog days of summer.

So yes, the rotation has been elite — but with a healthy, sharp Luis Gil rejoining the mix soon? That’s the kind of overkill Yankee fans can absolutely get behind.