Yankees health check

The Yankees opened April 11 in first place in the American League East at 8-3, and they got there while Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón were still on the injured list and Luis Gil started the season in Triple-A because the club did not need a fifth starter right away. (mlb.com) That is why this week’s pitching updates matter: the Yankees built their first two weeks with off-days and short-term patches, and that calendar trick is ending now. Luis Gil was recalled on April 10 after being optioned on March 24, and the team’s own roster page lists him back in the major-league rotation. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) Cole’s next step is the clearest one. Major League Baseball’s injury tracker says he is scheduled to throw live batting practice on April 12 with High-A Hudson Valley, which is the stage before minor-league rehab games when hitters stand in the box and the pitcher works in something closer to a real inning. (mlb.com) The Yankees are still calling Cole a May-or-June return, which tells you they are treating this like a long staircase, not a sprint. He had Tommy John surgery in March 2025, and the club says he will need game situations and then rehab starts over the next several weeks. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) Rodón is on a different track because his arm surgery was smaller and his current slowdown is in his leg, not his elbow. The Yankees list him as recovering from October 2025 elbow surgery, but on April 10 they said he was still throwing despite right hamstring tightness and had a live batting practice session scheduled for early in the week of April 12. (mlb.com) That hamstring issue changed the timetable more than the arm did. On April 3, manager Aaron Boone said Rodón could keep his arm going, but the team needed him able to run, cover first base, and field his position before clearing him for games. (mlb.com) Rodón’s elbow problem had been lingering for years before the cleanup. He told Major League Baseball in February that he needed October surgery to shave a bone spur and remove loose bodies after pitching through 2025 with reduced range of motion, and his average four-seam fastball had dropped from 95.4 miles per hour in 2024 to 94.1 in 2025. (mlb.com) Gil is the practical fix while the bigger names keep climbing back. The Yankees said on March 25 that they sent him down only because four early off-days let them skip a fifth starter, and on April 10 they brought him back to the majors once the schedule stopped giving them that luxury. (mlb.com) (mlb.com) There is one more layer here: Anthony Volpe is also on the injured list, and Clarke Schmidt is not expected until the second half, so the Yankees are trying to steady both their run prevention and their roster depth at the same time. Major League Baseball’s injury page says Volpe could begin a rehab assignment as soon as April 14, while Schmidt only threw his first 10 pitches off a mound on April 10 after Tommy John surgery in July 2025. (mlb.com) So the Yankees are not getting one dramatic return all at once. They are getting a Sunday live session for Cole, an early-week live session for Rodón, and a Friday turn for Gil, which is how a team tries to turn an April patchwork staff into a normal rotation before the standings get crowded. (mlb.com) (mlb.com)