TAMPA — Luis Gil’s dominant final start of the spring was still not enough to lock up a spot in the Yankees four-man rotation to begin the season.

Now the question is whether he will open the year in the bullpen or the minors until the Yankees need a fifth starter in early April.

With four off-days in the first 13 days of the season, the Yankees are going with a four-man rotation to begin the year so their starters are not going too long between starts over the first two weeks.

Max Fried will start the opener against the Giants on Wednesday, followed, after a day off, by Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers.

That leaves Gil as the odd man out following a camp in which his stuff was lacking before turning it on Friday night in a throwback performance against the Orioles.

“We’re working through that — do we want him to start a couple [in the minors] and then pop him in the rotation?” Aaron Boone said Sunday after a 4-0 win over the Phillies at Steinbrenner Field. “Is there an avenue to do it a different way? That’s what we’re working through still.”

Gil will stay back in Tampa to throw live batting practice Wednesday to continue his buildup, making it more likely that the Yankees carry an extra reliever on their Opening Day roster.

The arms still vying for spots — with three up for grabs if Gil is optioned, two if he is not — are Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest, lefty Brent Headrick, Jake Bird and Osvaldo Bido.

Headrick and Bird have minor league options while Bido does not and the Yankees must carry Winquest on their roster or offer him back to the Cardinals.

The Yankees could use Gil out of the bullpen in a piggyback role to keep him built up, but they already have length options in Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn.

If Gil throws live batting practice Wednesday, he would likely be unavailable for all of the opening series against the Giants.

Otherwise, they do not need a fifth starter until April 11 and Gil would be eligible to be called up as early as April 9 if he is optioned.

“Obviously, he’d like to be a starter with us, so frustrating [for him],” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “But at the same time, he understands the position we’re in with the way the schedule lines up for the first two weeks in particular. Now it’s just a matter of making sure we do right by him and keep him in rhythm and find the best balance for the bullpen and our starting group.

“It’s not necessarily a specific decision around Luis.”

— Additional reporting by Jon Heyman

There is no clock in baseball, and any half-inning could, in theory, last forever—the Dodgers decided to test the boundaries of that by scoring a ridiculous 10 runs in the third inning on their way to a blowout win. If you ask me, it was a bit overkill given how dominant Tyler Glasnow was, but the more the merrier, and who doesn’t love to see a lot of runs? This particular rally began with a solo shot from Teoscar Hernández…

…and it ended with a Shohei Ohtani bases-loaded three-run double, scalding a ball to levels that make you question if he is truly human when such majestic feats have become the norm for the reigning back-to-back NL MVP.

Funny enough, a home run would eventually come from the leadoff spot, but not from Ohtani. Once the replacements started to come in, James Tibbs III batted for Ohtani and hit an impressive solo shot to left centerfield.

The 13 runs the Dodgers scored were more than enough to back up Glasnow’s performance. Whenever someone asks you to describe the Glasnow experience, simply point to a start such as this one against the Angels, tossing five one-run innings and recording all but four of his outs via strikeout. Not nearly as efficient as most of the other ace-caliber pitchers, Glasnow dominates in rare fashion, even if he ultimately goes an inning or two shorter than you would like for someone of his caliber. Possessing two outstanding breaking balls, Glasnow can often pick up clues on which one is working best in any particular evening and just ride with it; tonight, it was the curveball.

Glasnow leaned into a curveball that was particularly dazzling, inducing a whopping 13 whiffs on 18 swings, mystifying Angel batters all evening long. The sole blemish on his record was a long shot to Jorge Soler on a 2-2 four-seam fastball that could not have been more than middle-middle if Glasnow had tried it. Speaking of Soler, if not for the Dodgers’ scoring outburst in the third, his performance would probably be the headline of this game. Soler also took Tanner Scott deep, this time for a three-run shot in the sixth. Once again, it was a fastball, this one not nearly as poorly located, that caused the damage. Scott’s blowup inning was the one big negative for the Dodgers in this game, as the left-hander allowed three earned runs while recording only one out.

Up next

The Dodgers and Angels meet again on Monday night, this time at Dodger Stadium. Reid Detmers will be the starter for the visiting team, while the Dodgers have yet to announce theirs. Start time at 6:10 p.m. PT.

Observations from Yankees spring training Sunday:

Finishing strong

Ryan McMahon had little to show for his narrowed batting stance for much of the spring, but he finished strong, recording a hit in four straight games to finish camp, including two Sunday.

Cami-lo point

In his first game back from the WBC, Camilo Doval had a shaky inning — hitting a batter, giving up a double and walking another to load the bases. But he got out of it unscathed with a strikeout and a double play.

Caught my eye

In the Grapefruit League finale, Ben Rice got his first (and only) inning of the spring as a catcher.

After starting at first base, he moved behind the plate in the sixth inning to catch David Bednar and Fernando Cruz.

Rice did catch bullpen sessions and live batting practices throughout the spring, but he is not expected to catch much, if at all, in the early going, though he could mix in some more as the season goes along.

Monday’s schedule

The Yankees face the Cubs in an exhibition in Mesa, Ariz., with spring standout Carlos Lagrange making one last start before heading to the minors.

Record: 15-13-1. Change on 2025: -1. 5-inning Record: 11-16-2.

The Diamondbacks saved the best for last, punching out their biggest margin of victory in the final Cactus League game. An emphatic 11-1 victory over the Padres was anchored by Gabriel Moreno, who hit two home-runs and doubled, giving him three long-balls for spring. Jorge Barrosa also hit his third HR, and Ildemaro Vargas went deep for the second time. The D-backs pounded out sixteen hits all told, with Ryan Waldschmidt joining Moreno in the three-hit club, and Barrosa singling in addition to his homer. Ben McLaughlin drew a pair of walks, as Arizona finished by going 7-1-1 over their final nine games. Not that it matters, of course… 🙂

The pitching was almost as good as the hitting, holding the Padres to five hits and two walks. It was a bullpen game for the Diamondbacks, and opener John Curtiss went two scoreless with a walk and four strikeouts. Brandyn Garcia rebounded from his recent struggles, fanning two of the three batters he faced. Juan Morillo was the only pitcher scored upon, allowing a solo home-run in the fourth. But thereafter we saw two scoreless innings from Shawn Dubin, then Yilber Diaz, Logan Mercado and Taylor Rashi took things the rest of the way for the D-backs bullpen.

Tomorrow, it’s back to Chase Field, for the first of two warm-up games there against the Cleveland Guardians. First pitch is at 6:40 pm, with Merrill Kelly starting for Arizona.

The Athletic | Chris Kirschner: (subscription required) Following yesterday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Yankees announced their rotation to start the season: Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Ryan Weathers. Notably absent, of course, was 2024 AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil. With the number of days off during the first week and a half of the season, the Yankees can get away with a four-man rotation the first two times through the order.

At this point, it’s unclear whether Gil — who has been working with Matt Blake to change the release point on his fastball, in the hopes of turning it back into the out pitch it was in the first half of 2024 — will break camp with the big league club, working as a piggyback behind Weathers, or with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, allowing the Yankees to bring an extra reliever.

SNY.com | Alex Smith: Facing a roster crunch, the Yankees traded infielder Jorbit Vivas, who is out of options, to the Washington Nationals yesterday afternoon (as Michael covered for us). In exchange, they received pitching prospect Sean Paul Liñan (Washington’s 27th overall prospect, according to MLB Pipeline), who was acquired from the Dodgers in their Trade Deadline swing for Alex Call, and whose fastball is lacking but whose changeup has screwball-like qualities and has been compared to Devin William’s famous Airbender.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: With Grapefruit League action coming to a close yesterday (the games today and tomorrow are, technically, not spring training matchups, but exhibitions), the Yankees announced this year’s James P. Dawson Award winner, given to the most outstanding rookie in spring training. To nobody’s surprise, pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange, whose performance put him on the map nationally and which forced difficult conversations about whether or not the Yankees ought to have him start the season with the big-league club, was this year’s award recipient.

Lastly, in case you’re curious, a few old Yankees friends on the bubble received some news over the weekend about whether or not they made their teams out of spring training. MLB Trade Rumors helps out on the rapid-fire:

• Jonathan Loáisiga cracked the Diamondbacks bullpen as a non-roster invitee to spring training.
• The Phillies picked up one erstwhile Yankees reliever and demoted another, with Tim Mayza joining their ’pen on a minor-league deal and Lou Trivino getting assigned to Triple-A.
• Also in the not-so-lucky bunch alongside Trivino, Gio Urshela and Austin Slater were released by the Twins and Tigers, respectively.
• These notes are a few days old, but Ian Hamilton did not make the Braves’ bullpen and was outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett, and the Red Sox signed Tommy Kahnle to a minor-league deal after his appearance in the World Baseball Classic. It’s likely that the changeup specialist will need to open 2026 at Triple-A to tune up.
• The worst news might go to Mike Tauchman, who was on track to join the Mets as a fourth outfielder but instead suffered a meniscus tear in his knee. Ouch. Condolences to the ol’ Sock Man.

TAMPA — And just like that, Camp Snooze is over — at least the Florida portion.

A year after enduring a spring training from hell, given a spate of key injuries, the Yankees left the sunny confines of Steinbrenner Field on Sunday following one of their most boring camps in recent years.

“It’s never boring,” Aaron Boone insisted with a grin.

OK, so perhaps uneventful is more apt, but either way, the Yankees made it through six weeks without any major injuries, controversies or problems popping up.

They still have two more exhibitions against the Cubs in Arizona on Monday and Tuesday before they get to Wednesday’s Opening Day against the Giants, but they left Florida feeling good about their spring overall.

“I think for the most part, I feel like it’s been a very good spring for us as far as overall health, guys getting the right amount of reps and things, some of our young guys pushing for roles and real playing time are looking the part,” Boone said. “Like the place that our depth’s in right now. Feel like we can withstand some things and still flourish. But we’ll see now.”

The Yankees are set to begin the season with four players on the injured list — Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt and Anthony Volpe — but all four had surgery well before arriving at camp and their rehabs have all gone smoothly.

In fact, Cole’s comeback was arguably the most exciting part of camp, right up there with top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange mostly dominating and showing he is closer to the majors than the Yankees thought entering the spring.

The good health has put their starting pitching and lineup depth in a strong spot.

Heck, the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders should probably be heavy favorites to win the International League at this point, given some of the talent the Yankees are sending there because there is not room on the big league roster, including Jasson Domínguez, Spencer Jones, Oswaldo Cabrera, Elmer Rodríguez and potentially Lagrange, among others.

The Yankees are set to open the season with a four-man rotation due to multiple off-days over the first two weeks, squeezing Luis Gil out for now despite his strong finish to camp, though they are still deciding whether he will be on the roster as a piggyback pitcher or start the season in the minors until they need a fifth starter.

“Having the depth that we have in pitching, I don’t think we’ve had that in quite a long time,” Aaron Judge said. “Even if you count the guys that are injured coming back — Rodón, Schmidt and Cole, you add those guys back, we have 11-12 starting pitchers deep. So that’ll be nice. But we got a lineup that was tied for the most wins in the AL, the best record in the AL. So you add those pitchers, you get [Cody] Bellinger back for another couple years, it’s only going to equal a better season for us.”

The Yankees even survived sending nearly half of their Opening Day roster to the World Baseball Classic, with all of their participants — most significantly Judge — appearing to have avoided any calamities, though the jury is still out on if it will affect them at all over the course of a long season.

As the Yankees broke camp, the bullpen still loomed as the club’s biggest question mark entering the regular season.

They were still finalizing the last two spots as of Sunday, and while the Yankees could potentially fold some starters into the bullpen once the likes of Rodón and Cole return, they still have to withstand the early weeks of the season until that is a possibility.

“I just want, really guys taking and grabbing and establishing some bullpen roles,” Boone said. “However we break, there’s going to be a few guys that don’t have a ton of experience necessarily or that are in that mix of a lot of competition, we could go a lot of different ways. But hopefully guys taking opportunities and establishing and growing in roles down there.”

I have to be honest with you, reader, the players on the field in this one were about as tired of Spring Training as I am. Sean Burke was solid in his final tuneup before adding “Day After Opening Day Starter” to his CV, allowing just a pair of runs over five innings. Unfortunately, he wound up the hard-luck loser when his lineup failed to make a dent in the formidable pitching operation of the defending AL West champs.

Burke registered six strikeouts in those five innings of work despite severely diminished fastball velocity, averaging a hair faster than 92 mph on his heater tonight after sitting in the 94-95 mph range all spring. Given that it’s his last outing before the games actually count, it could be that the sophomore righthander just wasn’t trying to fully air it out and risk being fatigued for his scheduled regular season start on Saturday. Still, it’s something to keep an eye on.

And the diminished velo was directly responsible for one of the two runs he allowed, when he placed a fastball on a tee up in the zone to Mitch Garver, who is not an impossible hitter to get a high fastball by if it’s not 91 mph.

One pitcher who wasn’t working with diminished stuff? Bryan Woo, who gave up a double to Andrew Benintendi to lead off the game and then proceeded to sit down the next 16 Sox hitters, four of them by strikeout. He brushed 97 mph on a buzzing heater and allowed just an 84 mph average exit velocity, with no one topping 100 mph between Benintendi’s double and a 107 mph line out from Munetaka Murakami in the fifth.

Burke gave way to lefty Chris Murphy, who threw a scoreless sixth inning in what will presumably be his last appearance before opening the season on a major league roster for the first time. In the Chicago half of the inning, it was the newest member of the club who finally got to Woo, as Reese McGuire’s one-out double snapped the Sox out of it. Woo nonetheless looked to be on the verge of escaping the jam before a fantastic piece of hitting from Chase Meidroth shot the ball into the corner and brought home a run.

Woo departed after that inning, but he was followed by Andrés Muñoz, and you just know that late-spring depth Sox bats had a fruit fly’s chance against him, so that was that. The rest of the game was played as if both teams were ready to board a plane back to their respective cities. The seventh and eighth for the Sox were handled by non-roster players Lucas Sims (who pitched ably) and Chase Plymell (who did not, allowing the Mariners to tack on two more). Big righty Riley Gowens capped things off with a scoreless ninth for the Pale Hose, his last work before potentially heading down to Charlotte for the first regular bullpen work of his career.

The White Sox did claw one back in the eighth courtesy of a solo jack from, you guessed it, McGuire again. The guy must have missed being in pinstripes.

The ninth was handled for Seattle by erstwhile Red Sox starter Cooper Criswell, who allowed an extremely on-brand bloop single to Rikuu Nishida to nearly spark a comeback. The Sox loaded the bases with one out against Criswell before the crafty righty shut things down, and that was all she wrote for the this one. The Sox drop back to .500 for the spring, with one more chance to finish on a positive note before finalizing the roster and cranking things up for good.

That one chance will happen tomorrow afternoon, as this edition of Spring Training concludes for the Sox in Mesa against the Athletics. First pitch is at 2 p.m. CT, with Anthony Kay taking the ball with one more chance to prepare before his return to the big leagues. Leigh Allan — 5-0 on coverage this spring — has the game, and we’ll see you there!