Gerrit Coles quest to solve two important problems before playoffs starts now
PHOENIX — There always was the understanding that there would be some bumps along the road in Gerrit Cole’s first season back from Tommy John surgery, as there are with any pitcher returning from major elbow surgery.Yet, for most of his first 20 starts back, he looked like the Cole of old. The last two, however, have started to ring some moderate alarm bells at an inopportune time — or, if viewed through the Yankees’ pinstriped glasses, a decent time so that he can get himself straightened out over his final two starts before the playoffs. Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
That quest begins Friday, when Cole will take the mound against the Diamondbacks having allowed seven home runs over his last two starts, the most in any two-start span of his career. “I expect him to be right next time,” manager Aaron Boone said after Cole’s last start against the Mets. Cole has insisted throughout that he is feeling good physically, 115 ¹/₃ innings into the season after missing all of last year.The metrics on his pitches over the last two starts against the Mets and Padres have mostly stayed in line with where they have been over the course of the full season, including his fastball velocity, which averaged 97.1 mph and 96.9 mph in those two starts (both faster than his season average in 2024). Except all of a sudden, that four-seam fastball has become a lot more hittable.
Dating back to Cole’s last four starts, hitters are batting 16-for-48 (.333) against the pitch, compared to 32-for-173 (.185) across his first 16 starts.Perhaps even more concerning is that hitters are not just hitting the fastball — they are hardly even missing it.
Over his last three starts, Cole has generated just eight whiffs on 69 swings against his fastball (11.6 percent), including zero on 16 swings last time out against the Mets, compared to a 22.8 percent whiff rate...