For more than half a decade, Gerrit Cole has been the king of consistency.
From 2018-23, Cole made at least 30 starts, recorded an ERA no higher than 3.50 and eclipsed 200 strikeouts in every season other than the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.
Last year, the Yankees ace limited opponents to two runs or fewer in 26 of his 33 starts en route to a 15-4 record, a 2.63 ERA and his first-ever Cy Young Award. His 209 innings led the American League and marked his sixth time surpassing 200 innings.
Now nine starts into a 2024 season interrupted by injury, Cole is working toward returning to that level of steady dominance.
“I’ve certainly had flashes this year of what it’s supposed to look like, and then maybe had a little bit of a letdown in the following start or something,” Cole said Saturday after tallying a season-high 10 strikeouts against the Rangers.
“[I’m] looking to bridge that consistency from one to the next.”
Now in the fifth season of a nine-year, $324 million contract, Cole made his 2024 debut on June 19 after being diagnosed in spring training with inflammation and edema in his right elbow. Upon returning, he continued to build his pitch count up at the MLB level and endured mixed early results.
Cole, 33, enters Friday night’s start in Detroit with an uncharacteristic 4.70 ERA but an opportunity to deliver his third consecutive outing of two runs or fewer, which would mark a season long.
After he missed one turn in the rotation with general body fatigue on July 30, Cole returned on Aug. 4 to limit the Blue Jays to two runs over 5.2 innings and 91 pitches. Toronto got to him for five hits over the first two innings that afternoon, but Cole settled in to retire 10 of his final 11 batters.
Then on Saturday against Texas, Cole turned in his first double-digit strikeout performance in nearly a year, using his four-seam fastball, slider, knuckle curve and cutter to elicit 26 swings and misses over his 90 pitches.
Nine of those whiffs came against his four-seamer, which Cole dialed up to 99.1 mph.
“There weren’t very many spurts of having to try to gather things back together, and I thought that the efficacy of the pitches held throughout the 90 pitches, so that was a good feeling,” Cole said.
“Even though last game, the pitch count was relatively the same, those two at-bats in the sixth inning were long and there were a lot of non-competitive pitches in those at-bats,” he continued. “I thought that the fact that we limited those clusters through the outing today with some work in between certainly helped me out a bit.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described Saturday’s strong start as “really encouraging” for Cole, while acknowledging he limited the right-hander’s workload for a second consecutive start in his return from the fatigue.
“We know how important he is to our staff and our rotation, so we want to be smart with it,” Boone said. “I think we’ll be in a good position to build from there and pick our spots where we back off a little bit.”
Cole is the No. 1 starter on a team with World Series aspirations. The Yankees begin their three-game series against the Tigers with one of baseball’s best records at 72-50 and winners of 12 of their last 17 games.
The Yankees have been buoyed by dominant seasons from Aaron Judge — who leads the majors with 43 home runs, 110 RBI and a 1.174 OPS — and Juan Soto, who also ranks among the league leaders with 34 homers, 87 RBI and a 1.053 OPS.
But the Yankees’ success in October may hinge on the right arm of Cole, who was asked Saturday if he felt there’s enough time for him to put everything together before the postseason.
“Certainly,” Cole replied. “Certainly.”