How Yankees feel about rotation after Luis Gil’s brutal injury update

With Luis Gil suddenly out for the first few months of the regular season (if not more) with a high-grade lat strain, the Yankees find themselves in a familiar spring situation.

Last March, ace Gerrit Cole was shut down with an elbow injury. That opened the door for Gil to earn an Opening Day roster spot, the beginning of his Rookie of the Year campaign.

Starting pitching depth and the overall strength of the rotation allowed the Yankees to hold it down while Cole was out a year ago. Their rotation pitched extraordinarily well early on with all five members of the starting staff giving the team a chance to win night in and night out.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone is confident that this year will be no different.

Marcus Stroman will take Gil’s spot to begin the year, joining Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt in the rotation.

And even if more injury adversity strikes before Gil can return, Boone believes in the next tier of starters the Yankees have at camp.

“We still feel like we have good depth,” Boone told reporters on Monday afternoon. “How [Carlos] Carrasco has come in here and looked. What we believe Will Warren can be. Allan Winans threw well the other day.”

Boone continued: “You know these things are gonna unfortunately come and pop up. They do at different times of the year. Hopefully, overall, you can stay fairly healthy, but unfortunately, these things are inevitable and that’s why every team tries to build in some depth. We feel like we’re in a good spot with who we have. It’s part of it.”

Gil won’t throw for the next six-plus weeks. Double that timeframe — factoring in an eventual build-up period and rehab assignments — and the right-hander might not make his season debut until late May or early June. That’s assuming everything goes according to plan and Gil doesn’t suffer any setbacks.

For reference, Schmidt had a similar injury last summer and it took him more than three months to return. Considering Gil’s injury history and the fact that he threw a career-high in inning last year, the Yankees won’t be rushing the phenom back from this.

Of that group of starters Boone mentioned as depth, Warren figures to be the next man up in case somebody else goes down or the Yankees need a spot starter. Warren struggled mightily against big-league hitters during his first taste of MLB action last year, but he’s looked magnificent so far this spring.

“He’s doing a lot of really good things right now,” Boone said after Warren tossed three perfect innings in his most recent spring start. “As the arsenal gets bigger, it’s just going to allow the ceiling to go a little higher, especially as a starting pitcher.”

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Max Goodman may be reached at mgoodman@njadvancemedia.com.