The New York Yankees currently do not have a starting pitcher slated for Friday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. That might mean Gerrit Cole makes his season debut against the first-place Rays.
That turn in the rotation would have given Elmer Rodríguez the starting nod. However, the Yankees sent Rodríguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday. With an opening in the rotation, the team is reportedly considering activating the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner on Friday, rather than scheduling him for a final rehab start.
Cole’s performance in his latest rehab start is certainly a factor in that thinking. He hit 99.6 mph on the radar gun and averaged 97 mph with his fastball in a Triple-A appearance on Saturday. The right-hander pitched 5 1/3 innings and threw 86 pitches, 56 for strikes.
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“I’d say it’s on the table, yeah,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged when asked if Cole could pitch against the Rays.
“Just wanting to do the right thing, what’s the right timing,” he added to explain the decision-making process. “Whatever we do, it’s with the long game in mind. A need doesn’t necessarily mean we’re bringing him back.”
In six rehab starts, Cole has recorded 28 strikeouts and three walks in 29 innings while compiling a 5.28 ERA. His rehab assignment began on April 17.
“It’s just a really long rehab,” Cole told the Associated Press before Saturday’s start. “If you include the offseason from the year prior, it’s been about 17 months since I last performed at the big leagues., so no matter how you slice it, that’s a long time.”
Cole, 35, has been working his way back from Tommy John surgery that he underwent last spring. He missed the entire 2025 MLB season. During spring training this year, his fastball topped out at 98 mph in two appearances.
Whenever Cole makes his season debut, it will be the first time he has pitched for the Yankees since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. In that start, he allowed five unearned runs (due to errors by Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe) on four hits with six strikeouts and four walks.
The Yankees (28-19) went into Monday’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays three games behind the Rays (30-15) for the AL East lead. They have lost nine of their past 11 games while Tampa Bay has gone 12-3 thus far in May.
