5 Thoughts: Time to re-grade the Jake Cave trade?
Luis Gil started against the Twins on Monday -- is it time to reconsider the time the Twins traded him away at 19 years old for Jake Cave?
1) The Luis Gil / Jake Cave trade can be instructive, within limits.
Luis Gil started Monday’s makeup game against the Twins at Yankee Stadium.
The 23-year-old has emerged in a sorta messy Yankees rotation, armed with a fastball running 94-98 mph. He’s pitched well, though Monday vs. the Twins was the worst of his 5 starts in his young career: he pitched 6 innings and allowed 5 earned runs on 7 hits, including 3 homers. He did tie his career-high with 8 strikeouts, just one start after he’d set a career-high of a different kind, walking 7 Mariners in 3 1/3 innings. He has a promising arm but it’s early.
Jorge Polanco homered on a changeup, his 30th of the year, now the only switch hitter in Twins history to club more home runs in a season than Chili Davis did in 1991. Miguel Sanó and Byron Buxton homered on fastballs in the middle of the plate, and it was 5-0 Twins after 3 innings. (The ensuing comeback, we can leave out here, since it had little to do with the trade I’m about to disc…