Cole Fired

 

You tilt your head up at Brian Cashman a little when he says 'oh, we don't need any starting pitching help this year', seeing the board, and then you remember you have Gerrit Cole up there every five days still throwing amazing stuff, and it all makes sense.

As I'm writing this, Gerrit Cole's given up three runs against the Astros. He's human. Christian Walker's a tough out. But I would still say Cole is among the best pitchers in the game, and definitely among the most accomplished. Verlander and Scherzer are probably done after this year, Sale and deGrom are gonna go next, and after them Gerrit Cole is the next-nearest pitching icon. He's got over 2300 strikeouts, has an outside chance of getting 200 wins, has a career 3.17 ERA, has only missed one full season to an injury, and even at his worst is still a dominant, consistent flamethrower. His weakest season to date, 2017, he still wins 12 games, strikes out 196 and tops 200 innings. This is a classic, old-school starting ace, and the Yankees have definitely gotten their money's worth from this contract. Three all-star teams, a 22.3 WAR, a 3.12 ERA, over 1000 strikeouts and that Cy Young in 2023. The injuries have been tricky the last few years, but even in shortened seasons he's still been great. Right now he has a 3.11 ERA, 100 Ks, 7 wins and a 2.5 WAR. He's not the best pitching performer on the team right now, but when this team also has Cam Schlittler, Carlos Rodon, Max Fried and Ryan Weathers, he doesn't need to be. Schlittler's on the road to a Cy Young this year, Rodon's looked good since coming back, and even Elmer Rodriguez held down the Astros the other night. 

The Yankees right now are in a pretty decent position that's only gonna get better once people start coming back. Cody Bellinger was just activated, he's been hot as hell since coming back, he's got 58 RBIs. Ryan McMahon and Max Fried will be back very soon [and Weathers will likely be back in time for October], and Aaron Judge is probably gonna shoot to return before the end of the year. The team is already good, and rolling, and there's the prospect of them getting better. Luis Garcia's been an excellent addition, he's got 5 homers and 11 RBIs in 19 games. Spencer Jones has filled in mightily as the outfield bat, he's got 7 homers and 23 RBIs. Jose Caballero's still a very sneaky little player, with 30 steals and 44 RBIs. Now Jazz Chisholm's heating up, he's got 18 homers, 53 RBIs and a league-leading 36 steals. Trent Grisham was just getting hot, he's got 18 homers and 56 RBIs. These are all people not named Aaron Judge, and they were all running this team in his stead. There's also the possibility that Jasson Dominguez comes back up when the rosters expand and continues his relatively strong work. And once again, George Lombard was ready for the majors, has 2 homers and 6 RBIs, and has a better shortstop play than his contemporaries. 

Here's how on-track this team is right now. Michael Fulmer just suited up for them the other night. Yeah, that Michael Fulmer. He's in our bullpen now. And he got it done. This bullpen already has David Bednar, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn surging, and we have Yerry de los Santos on a good pace. Now that Fernando Cruz is out for a couple weeks, we had an opening, Fulmer was around, so sure. And he's been great so far. I'll take it at this rate.

The Yankees are in very good shape right now, Astros struggles notwithstanding, and I'd love them to turn this into something tangible this fall. I've been burned before, and probably will be burned again, but this team has put it together really nicely this year, and is about to become even better. 

Coming Tonight: A trade deadline deal moved him to third, and made him think his job was in danger. So he shifted into overdrive.