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Quick thoughts after Gerrit Cole has an MRI on his elbow
🕑 Added 2025-03-08 14:43:27 +0000 UTC
Opening Day is still more than two weeks away, and already this season is starting to feel cursed. Gerrit Cole’s elbow is acting up for the second straight spring. He’s already had an MRI and the results are being sent out for second opinions, because that’s what you do when your $36M a year ace has an elbow issue. Cole admitted he is “concerned."
“I’m hoping for the best,” Cole told Bryan Hoch on Saturday morning. “In the game there was a lot of good stuff happening the other day, but as I got home I just continued to get more and more sore. Something wasn’t right.”
Cole missed the first 2.5 months of last season with an elbow injury, though that was nerve inflammation, not anything structural. I’ve already seen the “he should’ve had Tommy John surgery last year!” takes and nope. Those are just wrong. His UCL was fine last year. And hopefully it’s fine this year. We’ll see. There are two types of pitchers in this game: pitchers who are injured and pitchers who aren’t injured yet.
This has been an especially brutal spring for injuries. The Yankees have lost Cole (elbow), Luis Gil (lat), DJ LeMahieu (calf), Giancarlo Stanton (elbows), and a small army of relievers. Also, pitching prospects Chase Hampton and Thatcher Hurd blew out and needed Tommy John. This is the rotation depth chart at the moment:
1. RHP Gerrit Cole (had MRI on elbow)
2. LHP Max Fried
3. LHP Carlos Rodón
4. RHP Luis Gil (out until at least late May/early June with a lat strain)
5. RHP Clarke Schmidt (behind the other starters because of an achy back)
6. RHP Marcus Stroman
7. RHP Will Warren
8. RHP JT Brubaker (will miss time with broken ribs)
9. RHP Carlos Carrasco? (starting Sunday)
10. RHP Allan Winans? (starting Saturday)
Gil stepped up big time when Cole got hurt last year and the Yankees will need Warren to do the same this year. He’s looked great this spring, but it is only Spring Training. The Yankees might have to put Carrasco on the Opening Day roster just to prevent him from opting out of his minor league contract in two weeks. They need the depth. Carrasco’s looked okay this spring. Like a competent long man.
Teams usually aren’t eager to trade away pitching in Spring Training, though the Marlins are in everything must go mode and will probably listen on Sandy Alcantara. Dylan Cease’s name was out there all winter because the Padres were looking for ways to clear money. Maybe Cole’s injury will finally convince Hal Steinbrenner to raise payroll and they can swing a Cease/Luis Arraez trade? (crowd laughs)
There are a few veteran starters available in free agency. Kyle Gibson is the best of the bunch. He threw 169.2 innings with a 4.24 ERA (4.42 FIP) with the Cardinals last season, and Jon Morosi says Gibson is stretched out to 60 pitches and throwing live BP to college teams. He wouldn’t have to get built up from scratch. Marco Gonzales, Lance Lynn, and Spencer Turnbull are the other notable free agent starters.
One way or another, Cole will miss time. Basically never does a pitcher go for an MRI on his elbow and have everything come back squeaky clean, and he can resume throwing right away. The best case scenario is a little inflammation, a week or two of treatment, then building up from there. That would put Cole on track to return at the end of April, maybe? The worst case scenario is see you around the 2026 All-Star break, Gerrit.
The American League is very watered-down right now and even the Cole-less Yankees are good enough to get a postseason berth. Their margin of error has really shrunk though. They’re already pushing the limits of their pitching depth (starters and relievers) and they’ll need their high-variance players (Rodón, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jasson Domínguez, etc.) to click to best weather this injury storm.
It’ll likely be a few days until we get word on the nature and extent of Cole’s injury. Second opinions always take some time. So, until then, we wait and hope for the best. However long Cole is out, the Yankees will need Fried to be the ace, Rodón to not miss a start for the second straight year, and Stroman to pitch as good as he thinks he is. No more injuries, please. The Yankees have had a brutal spring on the health front.
Comments
Jingling Baby
Yikes, Tommy John surgery for Cole. That’s not what you want.
Alex G
Ugh, I'm sorry man. Lets just hope Cashman is out of a job very soon! In literally any other line of work, he would've fired such a long time ago but Hal has kept him because of nepotism.
Guy Gregory
They used their farm system until the deadline. And when they broke down at the deadline, they traded for Flaherty. Stone, in particular, was very effective until he broke down. They didn't sign Snell but they did sign Yamamoto. But my point was poorly made: they did sign Snell and Sasaki this offseason. The Yankees' farm system used Gil when Cole broke last year. The rest of the system was gone. King Thorpe Vasquez and Brito went to the Padres. Fitts and 2 others went to Boston for Verdugo. Wesneski was already gone. Warren is the most ready minor league starter this year. Rodon Schmidt and Fried have all lost time to various injuries. Maybe this is all hindsight and if you want to dismiss this as misplaced criticism do that. This was going to be a challenging year. Losing 2 starters when the replacement(s) are a huge dip in talent makes it even more challenging.
chuangeUp
Point is they did prepare better rotation depth to withstand injuries than other teams. Still, pitchers break. What exactly did the Dodgers do? I don't recall them signing Blake Snell last March after losing multiple guys in ST.
Michael Mazzullo
Alex, you are correct. But I'm 70 and I DON'T KNOW IF I can outlive Cashman and Hal, cuz they have positions for life
Guy Gregory
Until Schmidt appears in a game, Stroman is 4. Carrasco or Warren is 5. There is little or no present depth. Was Fried a depth signing? It allowed them to trade Cortes, but I thought the signing was designed to give them a game 2 starter in a playoff series. But you are correct in saying the won't expend assets to acquire the pitcher they need to replace Cole. The Dodgers did, and that is the team you are competing against.
chuangeUp
Didn't they already buy depth to protect against this situation by signing the most expensive left-hander in history and pushing Stroman to No.6? Not like any other team could cope with two long term rotation injuries.
Mark Davis
They’re not going to spend $ or real prospect capital on either of those things!
Alex G
They’re never gonna learn until Cashman is out of a job. Otherwise, he’s just going to keep lighting the payroll on fire by sinking bad money into players who are injury-prone and in their mid-late 30’s.
Michael Mazzullo
Stanton, Cole, D.J, all dead money. At some point they will learn about long term commitments to 30+ players. Do like the hockey Rangers did a few years ago. Signal a total re-build. Then play young kids; at least they are exciting. Trade anyone but Judge and a few younger guys. Eat some of the money in purge trades and start over. Real fans, like the Rangers fans, will understand.
Kevin Carter
Maybe that their offseason was multiple weeks shorter than prior recent seasons, and their season workload higher?!
Guy Gregory
A big market team should be able to buy depth to protect against this situation. This is not about poor training staff. Pitchers break. The management failure is that they have traded away depth at the deadline for several years. Cashman should not wait until the deadline this year. He needs to act quickly and decisively. The Padres trade for Cease last season is a model. Thorpe (MLB pipelines universal #86, Padres' #5); Sammy Zavala (Padres' #7); Jairo Iriarte (Padres' #8) and Christopher Wilson (2018 8TH round draft pick who pitched out of the White Sox bullpen last season). Cease or Alcantara for Dominguez, Arias, Selvidge and Riggio. ( I will note my continuing anger that Thorpe was moved for Cease and Wesneski was moved for Tucker) The fact is that whatever budget restraints Hal has placed on the FO (I for one do not believe that he didn't place restraints on spending as he claimed in the facial hair press op) has to be lifted. They need 2 starters, a 3B, a back up catcher and an outfielder. They need to get to work. You can mourn your plight for only so long. That time is over.
Brian Harvey
Well it was more of an opt out. Cole wanted more years but probably pretty quickly realized he wasn't going to get it from the Yankees or the open market so he did a Ctrl+z on the decision and the team took him back at the previously agreed upon terms as if he didn't opt out
Tim Baumgardner
Lol
Tim Baumgardner
Obviously you’ve never played pro sports. Injuries happen all the time.
Tim Baumgardner
He’s under contract for a few more years. They refused to add additional years and Cole relented. Don’t understand what else you wanted the Ysnkees to do? Eat the remaining $ and DFA him? Good grief
MikeD
I came for the pity fest, and you all did not disappoint.
Mike
They should have let him go once he opted out given his age and knowing he started having elbow issues. I said it at the time so not just second guessing here
Alex G
Cressey is just collecting a paycheck, he does all his "work" with the team remotely and doesn't even show up to the facilities.
Alex G
This season is shaping up to be absolutely miserable. Yet again, Cashman built an old, injury prone roster without any depth because the team doesn't utilize free agency and the organization cannot develop anybody. Best thing that could happen might just be to let the young players get run and bottom out record-wise this season so Hal is left with no choice but to fire Cashman and Boone. This legitimately might be a 75 win team if Judge isn't healthy and playing at an MVP caliber level all season.
Brian Harvey
You think this is why the Yankees seemed ok with the Cole opt out knowing his elbow was already balky
Jared Baiman
Mike I thought Eric Cressey was going to lessen all these soft tissue injuries bc he was the best in the business? This happens every year. What could these players possibly be doing all offseason that they come into spring training and get hurt within 5 mins? Jesus.
Will
It feels like someone made a monkey’s-paw wish last season - “I just want the Yankees to make it to the World Series. I don’t care what happens after that.”
Michael Axisa
I'll be happy if they manage to go three days without someone else getting injured.
Zack
This is hubris rolling on the front office and ownership.
The Original Drew
Everybody knows that % of teams that allow beards get hurt more often than teams that didn’t. That’s just math.
brian m
Can the Yanks go these next 3 weeks without someone else getting injured?
Cptncha
Him being concerned is the biggest red flag for me, hope it's nothing too serious.
