Gerrit Cole makes big first impression on Yankees manager Aaron Boone
TAMPA, Fla.— Aaron Boone got his first up-close look at new ace Gerrit Cole Wednesday morning wearing Yankees colors.
It was a run-of-the-mill early spring bullpen session to be sure, but there’s nothing run-of-the-mill about a pitcher of Cole’s caliber joining the Yankees, as the righthander did in December after agreeing to a nine-year $324 million contract.
Alongside Boone watching the 25-pitch session was general manager Brian Cashman, several members of his staff and new pitching coach Matt Blake, among others.
“Good to see him get here and to see him put on the pinstripes and have, I think, have a very efficient day of work,” Boone said.
Boone had a lengthy, and at times animated talk with Cole when he finished.
“Just how specific he is about everything he’s doing,” Boone said in summarizing their talk. “Every pitch he makes, what it’s doing, what it needs to look like, his mechanics that are involved with it…his attention to detail is special. Just a really good baseball conversation with a great player that understands who he is really well. And those conversations are important because I think they speed up the process in allowing us to kind of grow together”
The addition of Cole, who went 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA last season in finishing second to then-Astros teammate Justin Verlander in AL Cy Young voting, sent a jolt of excitement through not only the Yankees fan base but the Yankees organization.
“We just added one of the best pitchers in the game to our team,” Gary Sanchez said through his interpreter. “We had a really good rotation and now we have the opportunity to add Gerrit Cole, it’s great. What he’s done the past couple years has been incredibly impressive. To add someone like that to our team, it just gets better.”
Taking the fifth
Boone indicated lefthander Jordan Montgomery, who missed most of 2018 and ’19 recovering from Tommy John surgery, has the inside track on winning the rotation spot that opened up last week with the announcement that James Paxton would miss 3-4 months after undergoing back surgery. But that doesn’t mean some of the other contenders — a group that includes Luis Cessa, Jonathan Loaisiga, Michael King and Deivi Garcia — should be discounted.
“Monty’s in a good place, he’s worked really hard this winter,” Boone said. “He’s proven himself at this level…but we’re also very excited about a lot of our young pitchers.”
Yankees add pitcher
The Yankees announced the signing of righthander Tony Zych to a minor-league contract with an invitation to big-league camp. The 29-year-old Zych, who will wear No. 62, underwent Thoracic outlet surgery in November 2018 and has not pitched in the majors since 2017. In 70 career appearances (one start) with the Mariners from 2015-17, Zych went 7-3 with a 2.72 ERA and had 80 strikeouts in 72 2/3 innings.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
More Yankees headlines
