Recently, the New York Yankees clinched their spot in the 2025 MLB postseason with a win over the Chicago White Sox and celebrated with champagne in the locker room after. While they don't yet know whether they will be playing in the Wild Card round or getting a bye to the divisional series, it was a sigh of relief moment for Yankees fans who have watched a familiar pattern with the team starting out hot and slowly crumbling down the stretch of the season.
Max Fried and Carlos Rodon will be the Yankees' first two starting pitchers in their postseason rotation, but it remains to be seen who the third will be. Some may point to reigning American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil to fill the vacancy, but his struggles this year seem to have made that unlikely.
“Cam Schlittler currently has the inside track, while Will Warren remains in the mix to be their third starter. Gil… appears to face an uphill battle,” reported Chris Kirschner of The Athletic.
“I don’t think he’s a five-ERA guy, but he has pitched to a lot of traffic. He does have an instinct to make big pitches when the stakes are higher. I think that plays into it a little bit. But is that a recipe you want to live on? I don’t think so,” said Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake.
““I think that with Luis, in his mind, he’s trying to become more of a pitcher,” he added. “He understands the strike-throwing talk about him, and walking guys. He wants to throw strikes at a better rate. I think he’s trying to add and subtract a little bit.”
In any case, the Wild Card round of the MLB postseason is set to get underway at the end of this month. The Yankees have one more game remaining against the Chicago White Sox before kicking off their final series of the year against the Baltimore Orioles.
