Hitting the pause button on Gerrit Cole panic.
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It speaks volumes that on a roster with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, there is perhaps no more important a player to the fortunes of the team than Gerrit Cole. He is the linchpin of a starting rotation that contains more uncertainty than you would expect from a self-declared title contender. That is what makes the reports about the Yankees ace requiring an MRI on his pitching elbow just about the most alarming news we could have received this spring.
It is being reported that Cole has struggled to recover from spring outings, with Aaron Boone describing it as “akin to what [Cole] feels during the season when he’s making 100 pitches… When he’s throwing 45 and 55, he usually doesn’t have the recovery issues he’s having… It’s just been more of a challenge and more taxing.”
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The team has announced that they will not have an immediate prognosis for Cole as they seek multiple opinions. He will miss his scheduled start Tuesday (today) and his availability for Opening Day is not a guarantee.
The Yankees fanbase is notoriously not one given to un-hasty, clear-headed reactions but if ever there were a time to take a deep breath, it’s now. As easy as it is to jump to conclusions and assume the worst-case scenario, there’s really nothing positive that can come from such a course given how little information we’ve been provided.
That being said, it is important to acknowledge the justified alarm that the fanbase must be feeling. That this news has befallen perhaps the most durable starting pitcher in the game over the last half-decade certainly makes the situation feel more dire. Outside of a bout of elbow inflammation in 2016 and the left hamstring strain at the end of 2021 that likely scuttled his AL Cy Young case in the eyes of the voters, Cole has been a model of health and availability throughout his career.
What’s more, the starting rotation is the unit that stands on the shakiest ground for the Yankees. Obviously, an injury scare to the reigning Cy Young would be a blow to any team, but it cuts especially deep on a Yankees team where he seemed the only sure-bet of the starting five.
Carlos Rodón missed the first half of his debut Yankee season to injury and then was one of the worst starters in the league upon his return. Nestor Cortes pitched 63.1 ineffective innings as he dealt with a pair shoulder issues. New signing Marcus Stroman made the All-Star team in Chicago but injuries cratered the final third of his season.
Clarke Schmidt is a fine fifth starter but is coming off by far the heaviest workload of his professional career. Cole was supposed to be the one constant that mitigated the error bars of those surrounding him and now this news.
Our thoughts are conditioned to turn to Tommy John surgery whenever we hear the news about imaging on a pitcher’s throwing elbow. However, far more pitchers who experience elbow discomfort do not end up requiring surgical intervention than those who do.
It’s actually reassuring to hear that the issue has been recovering from starts rather than pain, tingling, or a singular moment that Cole felt something in his elbow, and even more so to hear Boone confirm that Cole passed all his strength testing.
I recognize this is meager consolation for worried souls. Given the Yankees’ history with injuries over the last handful of seasons, it’s easy to feel like the sky is falling. After watching the rotation crumble behind Cole in 2023, fans are going to respond to Rodón and Cortes’ early spring hiccups with disproportionate angst. Again, I urge us all to take a step back from the panic button, we just don’t know enough at this time.
If the prognosis is worse than the initial cautious optimism suggests, we should still have faith that the front office will do what is necessary to ensure the Yankees are still competitive in 2024. After trading a significant chunk of the farm for Juan Soto, I would find it hard to believe that the decision-makers would punt on two seasons in a row should Cole have to miss some time.
That being said, don’t expect the team to make any knee-jerk reactions in the coming days. They are likely going to approach this situation with the same prudent patience that I would ask the rest of us adopt.
Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Dylan Cease, and others likely will not be donning pinstripes by the end of the week regardless of the severity of Cole’s test results. The Yankees still have a damn good team. All we can do is continue to support them through spring and hope for the best for Cole.
