Former Minnesota Twins Prospect Wins Rookie of the Year

It’s been quite a while since the Minnesota Twins had a Rookie of the Year award winner. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1995 when Marty Cordova beat out Garrett Anderson and Andy Pettite for the honor. They now have the dubious honor of recently trading away a Rookie of the Year award winner though.

Luis Gil still haunts Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins signed Luis Gil as an international free agent back in 2014 as a 16-year-old. He made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League the next year. Just 28 games into his career, none of them coming stateside, Minnesota moved him to the New York Yankees. In 2018, a mediocre Twins team needed outfield help and they settled on Jake Cave. So it was, Gil for Cave, straight up. After two big league cameo’s Gil stuck in New York this season and took home top honors.

Luis Gil edges Colton Cowser for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. Here’s the full vote: pic.twitter.com/sGkvpzf7Va

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) November 18, 2024

The seemed expected to be between Gil and the Baltimore Orioles Colton Cowser. The outfielder’s 4.0 fWAR was better than Gil’s 2.2 fWAR, but the Yankees starter was a rotation fixture across his 29 outings. It’s hard to suggest either would have been the wrong choice, and the race was arguably decided by a pair of Minnesota BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) members. The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman left Cowser off his ballot entirely, while the Star Tribune’s LaVelle E. Neal had him as the runner-up.

Related: Former Minnesota Twins Closer Makes BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot

Both Minnesota @officialBBWAA representatives, @AaronGleeman and @LaVelleNeal had the former #MNTwins prospect Luis Gil as their AL ROY pick.

— Ted (@tlschwerz) November 19, 2024

Related: Minnesota Twins Prospects That Still Need to be Added to the 40-Man Roster This Week

Through Gil’s first 12 starts, he owned a season-best 1.82 ERA for the Yankees. He did struggle to keep that pace down the stretch, but pitched in both the American League Championship Series and the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers tagged Gil for four runs across five innings en route to a Game 4 victory.

Another stellar start for Luis Gil who improves his ERA to 2.11

6.1IP 1H 0ER 8K (14 swing & misses) #Mariners averaged 83.3 MPH of EV against Gil. #Yankees #Repbx #MLB

(video credits to @PitchingNinja) pic.twitter.com/lXOwm1CPwY

— Coach AZ (@CoachAZ_) May 23, 2024

Gil joins National League Rookie of the Year winner Paul Skenes to make it a sweep for starting pitchers. Next season he will look to build upon the 3.50 ERA from 2024. Meanwhile, Jake Cave last played for the Twins in 2022. He went to the Philadelphia Phillies next and posted an 84 OPS+ with the Colorado Rockies last season. Cave owns a career 88 OPS+ across 523 games and is a free agent this offseason.

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It’s beyond unfortunate how this all worked out for Minnesota. Of course, it’s hard to fault Derek Falvey for making the move at the time. No one could have predicted this sort of rise for Gil even if Cave’s ceiling was muted. It would be nice to see the situation work out differently for once though.