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New York Yankees Ace, Cy Young Winner Gerrit Cole Facing Potential Elbow Injury

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters that Gerrit Cole, who is fresh off winning AL Cy Young with the New York Yankees in 2023, is having an MRI on his pitching elbow.
Sam Connon|
New York Yankees Ace, Cy Young Winner Gerrit Cole Facing Potential Elbow Injury
New York Yankees Ace, Cy Young Winner Gerrit Cole Facing Potential Elbow Injury

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New York Yankees

Reigning AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole is having an MRI on his pitching elbow, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters Monday morning.

According to Boone, Cole has had a hard time bouncing back between starts at Spring Training. Boone said Cole is feeling similarly to how he does during the season when he is routinely throwing 100-plus pitches, but he hasn't been going that deep down in Florida.

Cole has made one appearance in the Grapefruit League, facing off against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 1. He allowed three earned runs, four hits and a home run, tossing 39 pitches across 2.0 innings of work.

The 33-year-old right-hander is entering the fifth season of the record-breaking nine-year, $324 million contract he signed with the Yankees in December 2019.

Cole went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA, 0.981 WHIP and 7.4 WAR in 2023.

Going back to his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros, Cole is 145-75 with a 3.17 ERA, 1.087 WHIP and 2,152 strikeouts. Before he won his first Cy Young Award last fall, Cole finished as the runner-up twice and inside the top 10 six times.

Cole has started 30-plus games in each of the last six non-COVID seasons, and he has surged past 200 innings six times in his career. His injury history is surprisingly limited, given how hard he's thrown the ball over the last 11 MLB seasons.

The former No. 1 overall pick out of UCLA ranks seventh among active pitchers in career WAR at 40.7.

New York did not sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga or Sonny Gray earlier this offseason, meaning they do not have a second ace to slide up the rotation should Cole miss time. Reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell remains on the open market, however, as does former Yankee and recent World Series champion Jordan Montgomery.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a staff writer covering baseball for “Fastball on SI.’’ He previously covered UCLA Athletics for On SI’s All Bruins site, and is a UCLA graduate, with his work there as a sports columnist receiving awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for On SI’s New England Patriots site, Patriots Country, and he was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk. Sam lives in Boston.

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