TAMPA — While prepared to strive for greater perfection, Gerrit Cole trains the Yankees’ young pitchers, advises managing partner Hal Steinbrenner, and speaks with reporter after reporter — all while finding time for everything. He’s now a man who is clearly at ease (but not quite pleased), a man who has reached the summit of his career, fulfilling the promise of a prodigy, that rare No. 1 draft pick who has climbed to become the majors’ No. 1 pitcher.
Cole’s true worth might be up to $50 million per year, but it’s difficult to determine the value of an arm without comps. He is without a doubt the best and most consistent pitcher in the game. He’s a given at the top of the Yankees’ rotation; manager Aaron Boone doesn’t even have to announce his Opening Day starter; it’s Cole by default.
While deciding whether to sign Blake Snell, a free agency standout and the sport’s other reigning Cy Young winner, Yankees fans occasionally point out that the $162 million deal for Carlos Rodon seemed regrettable in light of Rodon’s wasted inaugural season. However, the opposite side of the costly coin lockers adjacent to Rodon here, and Cole’s record free-agent agreement for $324 million over nine seasons with agent Scott Boras, now appears to be a value. (Sources say Cole recommended Snell as part of his side job as Steinbrenner’s co-confidant, alongside superstar Aaron Judge, but he tactfully declined to comment.)
In an era of arm attrition, where most contemporaries’ primary goal is simply to stay healthy and available, Cole is looking to build on one of the best pitching seasons in Yankees history, a unanimous Cy Young award that is underrated given the chaos and agony around him. While the Yankees’ rotation and lineup were decimated by injuries, Cole led MLB with a 7.4 pitching WAR and 0.98 WHIP, as well as the American League with 209 innings and a 2.63 ERA. He was like the man in the old Colt 45 commercial, doing his thing as everything around him exploded.
Cole, unsurprisingly, has higher expectations. He told me he wants to take his cutting to “the next step” and sees potential to “refine” his command. He’s a pitching genius on a quest for perfection.
Cole’s Cy Young award definitely should have been his second. He was denied the first in his platform year in Houston, despite being at least on par with rotation-mate Justin Verlander. (Verlander has been robbed twice; unlike Cole, writers are vulnerable.) The award was his holy grail, bringing a mixture of jubilation and relief.
“It was a truly remarkable honor that made me very proud. Cole remarked, “I’m just really happy to be doing it in this uniform and representing this organization.” “There have been many outstanding players here. So I feel like I accomplished something in comparison to Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Babe Ruth. Perhaps I’m not one of those players. But you feel like you’re contributing to the larger brand.”
Cole is 33, but there’s still a long way to go, especially in pinstripes. Cole admitted that for a brief time, he saw himself joining his hometown Angels. After meeting with Angels owners Arte and Carole Moreno at a Southern California hotel, he stated he was confident he’d end up there. But then the Angels offered a deal for around $235 million, which they handed Anthony Rendon, who has notoriously stated that he dislikes baseball. The Yankees, who had already indicated that they will renew Stephen Strasburg’s $245 million, seven-year contract in December 2019, added the game-winning two years after recognizing Cole was not just two years younger, but also better and healthier.
Cole has an opt-out clause after this year, and if he uses it, the Yankees may re-sign him for a tenth year at $36 million, which appears to be a done deal. (If true, his contract will be the largest in history for a pitcher, surpassing Japanese sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s new $325 million deal.)
There is no end in sight for a pitcher who is so good that he no longer faces competition as the best in the game. When asked how long he intends to keep going, he responds without hesitation, “As long as I can.” It’s almost as if he feels compelled to utilize his gift. Or, as he puts it, “trying to squeeze all the juice out of the lemon I was given.”
Of course, there is one more major goal left, which is why he strongly promoted Snell — who would provide the Yankees with perhaps their best one-two pitching punch ever — while Cole remains optimistic about the kids he is guiding here. “I haven’t seen anybody with bad stuff here,” he added of the kids.
The World Series is the “ultimate goal,” he stated.
