Gerrit Cole, the New York Yankees ace and reigning AL CY Young pitcher, has been on the sidelines with a nerve elbow inflammation injury since spring training. After the spring debut started, Cole felt banged up and realized something wasn’t right. And the pitcher’s cautious approach averted a disaster.
Due to timely diagnosis, Gerrit Cole dodged a season ending Tommy John surgery and settled for non-surgical rehab routine. While his initial May 27 timeline expired this week, the Yankees ace continues to build in live session. However, his agent, Scott, recently shared a massive update and essentially confirmed his return date.
Gerrit Cole’s Mid-June Return Almost Certain
New York Yankees’ most durable and prolific starting pitcher, Gerrit Cole, faced a serious injury for the first time in a long while this year as his pitching elbow suffered from nerve inflammation. To avoid surgery, he went on a grueling rehab program that shut him down for 6 weeks. He began throwing in limited capacity around mid-April before the Yanks scheduled bullpen sessions for him. Since the stakes with the reigning AL CY Young pitcher are high, the team chose not to rush him and let the initial timeline pass. Cole began facing live hitters last week and has had a couple of sessions too far. He is expected to throw 2 to 3 live sessions by the weekend before the team takes a call on a rehab assignment, which is the final recovery step.
Amid speculations, Gerrit Cole’s agent, Scott Boras, essentially confirmed to the media that Gerrit Cole should be ready to commence a rehab assignment by as early as next week. He is required to gather a minimum of 4-5 minor league starts before the New York Yankees mulls reinstatement. But in an ideal world, Boras admitted that a mid-June return is the most realistic window available for Cole at the moment. “He’s not revved up his program to 100%, but he’ll get there soon enough,” said Boras. A return in June is the best-case scenario for Gerrit, as he still gets to pitch a large half of the season. While the Yankees rotation has been phenomenal in his absence, Cole’s addition will only add more strength and firepower to the five-man rotation.
Clarke Schmidt’s Injury Clears Way For Gerrit Cole
Amid conversations of Gerrit Cole not being able to fit into the New York Yankees rotation upon return, fate played its part in Cole’s favor. With Yanks’ rotation creating history this week, it seemed an impossible task for manager Aaron Bone to demote a starter to accommodate Cole before Clarke Schmidt hit an injury snag out of the blue.
Clark Schmidt has been diagnosed with a right lat strain and will be essentially shut down from all throwing activities for 4-6 weeks. That means his return is unlikely for the next couple of months. While Cody Morris has been recalled as immediate reinforcement, Schmidt’s injury has cleared the way for Gerrit Cole to fall back onto the rotation without any unforced roster moves.
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