In March, on the field in Clearwater, Fla., Aaron Boone looked around the visiting dugout as Lewis Gil rustled through the Phillies' signature batting lineup.
“I kept turning around, 'Who else is watching this?'” the Yankees manager said this spring.
After Gil won the job in camp and often dominated during the season, he began to attract the attention of the sports world.
Gill beat out Baltimore's Colton Cowser (second place) and teammate Austin Wells (third place) in the voting announced Monday night to become the Yankees' first Rookie of the Year since Dave Righetti in 1981. He became a pitcher for the first time.
The right-hander first came out of nowhere to earn a spot in the club's rotation, then emerged in early Cy Young conversation, and eventually officially established himself as the league's best rookie.
In his first full season after Tommy John surgery in 2022, Gill started 29 games and pitched 151 2/3 innings with a 3.50 ERA.
The Yankees needed a starter after Gerrit Cole's injury, and they spent several months finding an ace.
The 26-year-old wasn't always accurate, but he was nearly always mean, posting a 2.03 ERA in 14 starts.
He had some fluctuations late in the season, starting the final 15 games of the regular season and posting a 5.15 ERA, which is understandable for a pitcher who had a career-high 108 2/3 innings in the minors in 2021. That was it.
The Dominican had 171 strikeouts, second most ever by a Yankees rookie (behind Ross Ford's 209 strikeouts in 1910).
