Gerrit Cole Has Reinvented Himself Yet Again

Since returning from Tommy John surgery, the Yankees ace has showcased a new delivery, a new changeup and a new fastball.

Gerrit Cole has a 2.00 ERA over 18 innings in his three starts this season entering Tuesday. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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Please don’t call this version of Gerrit Cole “vintage” Cole. The Yankees righthander, who reinvented himself in Houston, trading a sinker-heavy approach for a classic four-seam mode, has done it again. Cole 3.0 has a new delivery, a new changeup and a new four-seamer.

The delivery change is obvious. Purely for comfort reasons, Cole has adopted the old-school, three-part delivery in which he brings his hands over his head.

The new changeup is easy to see, too. Instead of trying to force pronation to throw a changeup with arm-side run, Cole adopted the kick changeup, which effectively means “pushing” the ball out of his hand without trying to manipulate sidespin to get arm-side run. Check out his new changeup metrics, which include throwing it softer, more often and with more drop.

Cole Changeup, 2026	Statistic	Career high/low
Usage	16.2%	Career high
Miles per hour	85.6	Career low
RPM	1,960	Career high
Vertical drop	28”	Career high

The four-seam fastball change may be less obvious. Cole is still throwing hard (thus, the quick “vintage” references), but he is using his four-seamer differently. Cole was an early influencer in the prevalence of the high-spin, high-vert, top-of-the-zone heater, which was also abetted by sticky stuff before the crackdown. Now Cole has jumped aboard the Fastball Triangle trend, in which pitchers throw a four-seamer, sinker and cutter to confuse hitters with three high velocity pitches with different movement profiles.

Cole is throwing 10% sinkers, up from 1% before his surgery. And though he does not throw a cutter, his hard slider (89 mph) essentially serves the purpose.

To confuse hitters, Fastball Triangle pitchers need to tunnel those heaters, which means the four-seamer is no longer relegated to its usual top rail position. And that’s where Cole has made a big change. He is throwing low darts with his four-seamer. The average height of his four-seamer (2.46 feet) is the lowest it’s been since 2017, when he was a sinkerball pitcher in Pittsburgh, and down from 3.02 feet two years ago.

In these four-seam heat maps, you can clearly see how Cole is using his four-seamer in a vastly different way.

MLB

Matchup of the Week: José Ramírez vs. Gerrit Cole

Ramírez is 14-for-39 (.359) against Cole with three home runs, all of them off Cole’s four-seam fastball. Lather, rinse, repeat. Here they are:

MLB

Ramírez is one of only four hitters to homer three times off Cole’s fastball. Rafael Devers and Lucas Duda did so four times. Marcus Semien, like Ramírez, got him three times.

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