{"id":31635,"date":"2025-03-09T00:44:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T00:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=31635"},"modified":"2025-03-09T00:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T00:44:21","slug":"breaking-yankees-bad-news-just-gets-worse-324-million-ace-gives-painful-update-on-elbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=31635","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Yankees Bad News Just Gets Worse, $324 Million Ace Gives Painful Update on Elbow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-Bad-News-Gerrit-Cole-Elbow.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-Bad-News-Gerrit-Cole-Elbow.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-Bad-News-Gerrit-Cole-Elbow.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-Bad-News-Gerrit-Cole-Elbow.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Gerrit Cole\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"1148\" data-dom-ready-time=\"1304\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Gerrit Cole<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Gerrit Cole, the undisputed ace of the New York Yankees pitching staff \u2014 who is entering the sixth season of his nine-year,\u00a0$324 million contract with the team\u00a0\u2014 delivered on Saturday morning the one piece of bad news the Yankees least wanted to hear. Cole said that he had seen MRI imaging of his throwing elbow, and it left him \u201cconcerned\u201d that he may need surgery to repair the joint, according to a report by\u00a0Dan Martin of the\u00a0<em>New York Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Cole called the discomfort he felt in his right elbow following his spring training start against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday \u201calarming,\u201d Martin reported.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday night, the Yankees revealed that Cole would\u00a0undergo imaging tests\u00a0on the elbow. Those images have now come back and, according to\u00a0MLB Network reporter Bryan Hoch, Cole said that after seeing them he wanted a second opinion on the condition of his elbow \u2014 though he did not say what the MRI results showed.<\/p>\n<h2>Cole Still Has \u2018Some Hope,\u2019 He Says<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve still got some hope,\u201d Cole said, as quoted by Hoch. \u201cI\u2019m just waiting for the experts to weigh in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cole\u00a0was roughed around by Minnesota in the Thursday start, allowing six runs on five hits including a pair of home runs in just 2 2\/3 innings. But he said that he felt physically fine after he came off the mound. His fastball averaged 95.7 mph for the start, though Cole acknowledged issues with his command despite issuing no walks in the short outing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I got home, it continued to get more and more sore,\u201d Cole said, as quoted by the\u00a0<em>Post<\/em>. \u201cSomething wasn\u2019t right. \u2026 It was tough to sleep. It was alarming the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cole made\u00a0only 17 starts for the Yankees\u00a0in 2024, after making at least 30 in his last six full seasons (the only exception being the pandemic-truncated 2020 season when the 60-game schedule limited Cole to 12 starts). In fact, Cole led the American League with 33 starts in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also led the National League with 33 starts in 2017 when he was still pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team that\u00a0drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, out of UCLA.<\/p>\n<p>But on\u00a0March 16 of 2024, Cole reported \u201cinflammation\u201d in his right elbow and said that he would be shut down for four-to-six weeks. But just 12 days later, the Yankees placed their ace \u2014 who has notched 153 wins and 2,251 strikeouts in his 12-year career \u2014 on the 60 day injured list. He did not make his\u00a0first start last year\u00a0until June 19.<\/p>\n<p>He went 10-7 with 3.41 ERA in 95 innings the rest of the way, and helped the Yankees reach their first World Series in 15 years, starting five postseason games allowing seven earned runs in 29 innings.<\/p>\n<h2>Cole Injury Would be Lowlight of Carnage-Filled Spring<\/h2>\n<p>Cole said on Saturday that he was on a special throwing program to protect the elbow this spring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe came up with a plan to mitigate the risks and I executed it,\u201d Cole told the media. \u201cI felt the best I had in some time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A disabling injury to Cole would be the worst news for the Yankees in a\u00a0spring training filled with bad news. The Yankees have already lost their power-hitting DH Giancarlo Stanton, as well as two starting pitchers \u2014\u00a0Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil\u00a0\u2014 for indefinite periods of time.<\/p>\n<p>The organization\u2019s No. 2 pitching prospect\u00a0Chase Hampton, who was expected\u00a0to see action on the big league mound at Yankee Stadium this year, already saw his season ended with Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Gerrit Cole Gerrit Cole, the undisputed ace of the New York Yankees pitching staff \u2014 who is entering the sixth season of his nine-year,\u00a0$324 million contract&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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