Gerrit Cole’s pitch count keeps climbing in the minors as he prepares to rejoin the New York Yankees this season. Cole, a six-time All-Star who will be 36 in September, is attempting to complete a long-awaited comeback from Tommy John surgery, which cost him the 2025 campaign.
On April 16, the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner threw 44 pitches in his first rehab start, notably reaching 96 mph while on the bump for Double-A Somerset. He followed that outing with a 52-pitch performance last Thursday for High-A Hudson Valley.
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Back with Double-A Somerset on Wednesday, Cole ramped up his workload to 60 pitches, going 5 2/3 innings in a 6-5 loss to Double-A Portland, a Boston Red Sox affiliate.
Cole recorded only three strikeouts and gave up three runs, but he didn’t issue a walk, and he went nearly six innings deep.
He retired the first 11 batters he faced; however, he eventually conceded two homers. That said, of his 60 pitches, 45 were strikes. Cole has only one walk to his name after his three rehab starts.
He hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He spoke Wednesday about what he’s learned since.
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“I just try to keep things in better perspective,” he said, via SNY. “I’ve become a lot more grateful for the level of competition that the big leagues are and how hard it is to play and how much I miss it. I hopefully improved as a father over the last several months, being around the kids and spending more time with them. And I think just a fresh perspective, grateful to be playing a sport living. It’s a blessing.
While Cole admitted that sometimes he catches himself daydreaming about pitching against, say, the Texas Rangers, he said it’s not too difficult to stay in the moment.
He explained that the gradual buildup he’s going through calls for intense focus and dedication in the here and now.
“You have moments where you think about where you would ideally like to be, and I think that’s natural,” a thoughtful Cole said Wednesday, via MyCentralJersey’s Mike Ashmore.
“Maybe those moments happen more frequently as you get closer to the end. But even though it’s one start, there’s like five days of process that you’ve got to execute. The reality is, I’m confident I’m going to execute these things really, really well. But it’s been a while since I’ve done them.”
Cole added: “It may seem like the same thing over and over again, but that’s the point. We don’t have time up there [in the majors] to push it an extra day should the recovery not be — you’ve got to go, and you’ve got to perform. I want to get there, but I just have to build such a big base in order to get up there, get in a flow and start to execute.”
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Cole is expected to return to MLB action in late May or early June. His road back to the show continues, one step at a time.
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