Gerrit Cole getting MRI on elbow in dire Yankees injury concern
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Yankees squeezed most of their season’s hopes into an MRI tube Monday, when the health of their most indispensable player hung in the balance.
Gerrit Cole — perhaps the best starting pitcher in baseball and easily the most reliable among a group of unreliable Yankees starters — was headed for tests on his right elbow after not bouncing back from his outings as well as he usually does.
“His recovery, before getting to his next start, has been more akin to what he feels during the season, when he’s making 100 pitches,” manager Aaron Boone said Monday from BayCare Ballpark before the split-squad Yankees beat the Phillies 2-1. “When he’s at 45 [pitches] and building to 55, he usually doesn’t have the recovery issues he’s having.”
Boone said there’s “a level of discomfort” but did not want to say that Cole is in pain.
The Yankees will know more Tuesday, though it might take several days and several pairs of eyes from doctors for an announcement to arrive.
Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, debuted this spring on March 1 then received an extra day of rest before throwing three innings and 47 pitches of a live batting practice Thursday.
He had been scheduled to make his second Grapefruit League start Tuesday.
The 33-year-old has been a workhorse for the Yankees since signing a $324 million contract before the 2020 season. In the four seasons since, no one has pitched more innings than Cole’s 664.
Cole has never undergone Tommy John surgery and has been a true rarity in baseball, a rotation fixture who has made the third-most starts in MLB (300) since debuting in 2013.
Boone acknowledged this is a scary moment for the Yankees.
“It’s Gerrit Cole, right?” Boone said, speaking to the gravity of a constant abruptly becoming a concern.
Aaron Judge might be more the face of the team and Juan Soto the new superstar, but there is not a more irreplaceable Yankee than Cole.
Without him, the club’s rotation would be comprised of unknown after unknown.
Carlos Rodon is coming off a disastrous first year in The Bronx, dealing both with injuries and ineffectiveness during a campaign that finished with a 6.85 ERA.
The early spring results, while mostly meaningless, have not been encouraging.
Nestor Cortes’ own left shoulder issues held him to 12 starts last season and bled into his offseason, when he felt he was not making progress with his shoulder until what he hopes was a breakthrough with Yankees trainers.
Marcus Stroman was excellent for the Cubs for last season’s first half but dealt with hip inflammation and a rib cage cartilage fracture in the second half, when he allowed 23 earned runs in 24 innings.
While typically reliable, Stroman at his best has pitched more like a No. 2 or 3 than an ace.
Clarke Schmidt might be the best bet to last this season in the Yankees’ rotation, but he pitched to just a 4.64 ERA last year.
There are still standout starters such as Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery on the free-agent market, which could motivate the Yankees to action if Cole’s injury proves serious.
Yet, because the Yankees have spent above the highest luxury-tax threshold, any dollar they now spend this season will come with a 110 percent penalty.
If Cole misses time and the Yankees — who traded away plenty of pitching this offseason, including Michael King, Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito in the Soto blockbuster — look internally, options would include Luke Weaver, Cody Poteet, Cody Morris, Clayton Beeter, Will Warren and Luis Gil.
Boone declined to speculate about potential outcomes for Cole, but even if the imaging comes back clean, he may not be ready for an Opening Day that is less than three weeks away.
On a chaotic Monday, an all-in season for the Yankees began to wobble before it even has begun.
“He usually hasn’t felt this way in his buildup. We just want to get it checked out,” Boone said. “Hopefully it’s not something significant.”