Yankees' Gerrit Cole treats first live batting-practice session seriously
TAMPA, Fla. — A group of catchers paused for a few moments as they stretched in rightfield so they could glance at a few pitches.
A slew of Yankees executives and talent evaluators filed into the seats directly behind home plate. Behind protective screens near the home dugout at Steinbrenner Field, general manager Brian Cashman was joined by a handful of pitchers who stood at rapt attention, a group that included James Paxton, Luis Severino, J.A. Happ and Zack Britton.
The event?
Gerrit Cole’s first live batting-practice session of spring training, generally a ho-hum, seldom-chronicled affair for 99% of pitchers.
But there is nothing ho-hum about Cole, who signed a nine-year, $324 million free-agent deal during the offseason and is seen by Yankees fans as the No. 1 reason they assume they’ll be celebrating World Series championship No. 28 sooner rather than later.
“That’s the first time I got a standing ovation for my first live BP, I can tell you that,” a smiling Cole said of the reception he received walking to the mound from the crowd of about 1,000. “I walked out and I told Boonie [Aaron Boone], ‘It’s probably going to come out a little bit hotter than I anticipated.’ But it was fun. I’m certainly not complaining about a nice atmosphere.”
Cole threw 27 pitches, mixing in fastballs and changeups. The first three pitches were fastballs — all strikes — that Kyle Higashioka watched sail past, much to the delight of the crowd (Higashioka stroked a clean single to center in his second at-bat).
“Obviously, there’s a buzz when he walks to the mound and there’s obviously excitement with the crowd that’s around,” Boone said. “But just another peek behind the competitor, the intensity, the confidence that he has when he gets on the mound and the seriousness with which he takes it.”
While Cole smiled about the pomp and circumstance afterward, the righthander was all business on the mound while it swirled around him.
After each of Cole’s bullpen sessions, Boone has talked about his almost obsessive attention to detail. Everything has a purpose, no action wasted.
Cole’s focus Sunday was his changeup. He was looking for, and received, real-time feedback on that pitch, and his fastball, from Boone, pitching coach Matt Blake, catcher Gary Sanchez, or anyone else with a thought.
“He’s able to process that information really well, and if there’s any adjustments to be made, he’s really good on the fly doing that,” Boone said.
After finishing, Cole first made a beeline for the hitters he faced, three of whom were minor-league call-ups, and fist-bumped them, saying, “Thanks guys, appreciate it.”
Cole then watched several other pitchers throw live BP, including Jordan Montgomery, all the while talking to the likes of Happ, Paxton and others.
“It’s nice to get live perspective from other people at the same time,” Cole said. “ 'What are you seeing from the side?' 'Gary, what are you seeing [from] the hitters?' Always having someone else’s perspective is comforting as well.”
Cole shrugged when asked about his obsession with detail and collecting as much information as possible.
“I learned about it from other teammates and I thought it was a pretty consistent trait in a lot of guys that I tried to admire [when] I was young in my career in Pittsburgh,” said Cole, who debuted with the Pirates in 2013 at 22.
He mentioned Andrew McCutchen, Tony Watson and a pair of former Yankees on that team, Russell Martin and A.J. Burnett, as major influences that way.
“I guess I just always assumed that the people who were really good at this game did that,” Cole said, “So I both have a love for doing it and I also thought it was an essential part of being good.”
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.
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