GERRIT COLE TAKES THE MOUND AT YANKEE STADIUM

As spring training part 2 begins for the Yankees, Gerrit Cole is already throwing close to triple digits. The ace took the mound in an empty Yankee Stadium, not donning the classic pinstripes, but a Nike shirt and shorts to try out his new home.

“He is pretty close to game speed. I think it was 95 to 99 [mph], so we are in a game-ready velocity,’’ first-year pitching coach Matt Blake said on Zoom "Now it is kind of fine-tuning it and sustaining over longer pitch counts. I think he feels good about where he is, and obviously, he is always a critic of himself, kind of tightening things up whether it is a certain pitch to a certain location."

Cole has been working since COVID-19 shut the MLB down in March so he could be ready for whenever he was called back to play. Judging by the work he put in yesterday, Cole is jumping right into things. 

“He looked good today. He’s moving right along [with] his progression so we actually went three [innings] today and kind of set the bar for what we’re going to build on,” Matt Blake said of Cole being ready for the regular season in three weeks.

Being in good shape is important if Cole is able to start against the Nationals on July 23. The Yankees know that their ace has been the talk of all social media since he has been signed, and teased his performance on social media. 

Since the normal spring training is six weeks long, the concern about the health of the players is definitely heightened during this shortened period. 

“I think the biggest thing with taking inventory of all these guys as we were going along and making sure we knew the pulse of how they were training and how consistent it was being so we weren’t asking something of them that they hadn’t been doing over the last 30 days or two weeks coming into camp,” said Blake.

Blake has also mentioned that the Yankees plan to hold their pitchers to a 50-60 pitch limit during the hiatus as to not push their arms. By the season start, he plans to have the starters ready to throw four-six innings. 

It's happening people... baseball is coming back!

--Missy O'Rourke

BYB Contributor

Twitter: @missy_orourke