Luis Gil To Undergo Shoulder MRI; JT Brubaker Suffers Rib Fractures

Yankees right-hander Luis Gil felt some shoulder tightness during a bullpen session today and is heading for an MRI tomorrow. Manager Aaron Boone relayed the information to reporters, including Greg Joyce of the New York Post. Boone also revealed, per Joyce, that JT Brubaker broke three ribs trying to avoid a comebacker last week. No timeline was provided for Brubaker’s return.

At this point, there’s little information available on Gil and it can only be speculated what comes next. However, an MRI indicates that the club has at least some level of concern about the discomfort in his shoulder.

Any injury absence would obviously be unwelcome news for Gil and the Yankees. The righty missed most of 2022 and 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and the subsequent recovery period, but he returned with a big flourish in 2024. Despite the long layoff, Gil managed to take the ball 29 times and toss 151 2/3 innings for the Yankees last year, plus two more postseason starts. He finished the regular season with a 3.50 earned run average and 26.8% strikeout rate. The 12.1% walk rate was a little high but Gil worked around that enough to win American League Rookie of the Year honors.

Brubaker still hasn’t pitched for the Yankees. He was acquired from the Pirates going into 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He started a rehab assignment in June but then got held back by an oblique strain, which kept him on the IL through the end of the year. Prior to his surgery, he posted a 4.99 ERA in 315 2/3 innings over three seasons with the Bucs from 2020 to 2022.

It’s obviously not ideal for a club’s rotation mix to potentially lose two members but the good news is that the Yankee rotation will still be in strong position even if Gil and/or Brubaker need to miss some time. The Yanks have such a packed rotation that they have been trying to unload Marcus Stroman for weeks.

No deal has come together and Stroman is getting stretched out in spring, so he could easily step into a rotation spot alongside Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt. Brubaker’s injury, and Chase Hampton’s recent Tommy John surgery, will thin out the depth a bit but the club has other potential arms there.

MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a look at some notable out of options players coming into the 2025 season in a piece for Front Office subscribers, highlighting Yoendrys Gómez as one of them. Gómez didn’t seem to have a path to a roster spot as of a few hours ago but dual IL stints for Gil and Brubaker would obviously help him. The Yanks also have Will Warren and Brent Headrick on the 40-man roster. Veteran Carlos Carrasco is in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Ideally, Gil’s MRI will find nothing of note and he will be fine after a bit of rest. But even in the event something more significant is found, the Yanks seem well absorbed to put together a strong pitching staff in the short term, a strong demonstration of the “you can never have too much pitching” cliché.