Yankees breakout star pitcher earns Rookie of the Year honors

New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil was named the American League Rookie of the Year for the 2024 Major League Baseball season.

Gil is the 10th players in Yankees history earn the award, and the first since Aaron Judge in 2017.

Making his return after missing an entire season's worth of baseball due to Tommy John surgery, Gil came back with a vengeance and took the league by storm.

The 26-year-old went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA, 171 strikeouts, 77 walks and a 1.19 WHIP in 151.2 innings across 29 starts.

It was a pretty tight race for Gil, who was a finalist for the award with Baltimore Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser and fellow Yankees teammate catcher Austin Wells.

Gil finished with 106 total points in the voting process, which included 15 first-place votes, 10 second-place votes and one third-place vote. Cowser had 101 total points, including 13 first-place votes, 11 second-place votes and three third-place votes.

Among American League pitchers with at least 150 innings, Gil led American League had the best opponent batting average (.189) and was second in hits per nine innings (6.17). He his K/9 (10.15) ranked fourth, he was sixth in opponent slugging (.345) and 10th in opponent OPS (.643). He also paced all AL rookies in wins and tied for the rookie lead in strikeouts.

What made the case strong for Gil was his incredible first half of the season. The hard-throwing righty got off to an incredible start and through his first 14 starts, Gil was 9-1 with a 2.03 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 80 innings pitched.

However, he's proved to be a bit more human over the last two months. Over his final 15 starts, Gil was 7-8 with a 5.15 ERA.

It will be interesting to see how Gil's career pans out, but it's off to a hot start with an impressive honor.