Pitcher Gerrit Cole will make his return to action this Friday for New York Yankees against Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. The announcement was made Tuesday by coach Aaron Boone. Cole hasn’t faced a big league matchup since Série Mundial’s fifth game of 2024.
Cole, 35, underwent Tommy John surgery last year and missed the entire 2025 season. Seu’s road back was long: 17 months separate his last pitch into American baseball’s elite from his first game this season.
Desempenho in rehab games
The New York team assessed that Cole had reached the necessary level to return to action. In his appearance over the weekend with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team, the pitcher showed impressive physical strength.
Cole pitched 5 1/3 innings with 86 pitches, 56 strikes. Sua top speed reached 99.6 mph, averaging 97 mph on fast pitches. The performance eliminated the need for a final warm-up game.
Over the course of six rehab presentations, Cole recorded:
- 28 strikeouts
- 3 hikes
- 29 innings pitched
- WAS 5.28
Cole began his recovery journey on April 17th. “We’ve done everything he needs to be ready to compete at this level,” Boone told reporters, as reported by the local press.
Contexto of the championship and next steps
Os Yankees entered Tuesday with a record of 29 wins and 19 losses. The team is three games behind Tampa Bay Rays (31-15) leading Divisão Leste from Liga Americana. Nova York has won just 4 of their last 12 meetings, while Tampa Bay has recorded an impressive 13 wins from 3 losses this month.
Cole’s return comes after the team sent pitcher Rodríguez to Triple-A’s lineup on Monday, opening up a spot in the pitching rotation.
Trajetória until return
Cole is the winner of Melhor Arremessador’s Liga Americana award in 2023. Seus’s last moments on the mound were in Série Mundial’s fifth game of 2024, when he gave up five unearned runs — the result of errors by Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe — with four hits, six strikeouts and four walks.
Durante spring training this year, his fast pitch reached 98 mph in two appearances. The increase to 99.6 mph on Saturday represents continued evolution in his physical strength.
“It’s a very long rehabilitation,” Cole commented to the news outlet before his final performance. “If we consider last year’s offseason, it has been approximately 17 months since I pitched in the big leagues. That’s a long stretch anyway.”