Gerrit Cole opts out of Yankees contract; Anthony Rizzo's option declined

Gerrit Cole opted out, but the Yankees have the option to quickly opt him back in.

In a completely expected move, though one that nonetheless turned plenty of fans’ heads, Cole opted out of his Yankees contract on Saturday morning.

Pretty much from the time Cole signed his nine-year, $324 million deal before the 2020 season, it was anticipated that he would utilize the opt-out included in the contract.  He  isn’t guaranteed to hit the open market as a free agent, though.

Also included in the contract negotiated by agent Scott Boras — who represents many of baseball’s biggest stars, a stable that includes current free agent Juan Soto — was an ability for the Yankees to void the opt-out by adding a fifth year for $36 million to Cole’s deal, which had four years and $144 million remaining.  That would keep him a Yankee through 2029.

Though Cole, 34,  started the season on the injured list with right elbow inflammation and didn’t make his first start of the year until June 19,   he has been among the most durable pitchers of his generation.

The difficulty of finding durable high-end starting pitching, as well as the success Cole has had with the club,  makes it likely that the Yankees will tack on the additional year for $36 million. The club has a deadline of 5 p.m. on Monday to make that call.

Cole is 153-80 with a 3.18 ERA in his 12 years in the big leagues, including 59-28 with a 3.12 ERA in his five seasons with the Yankees. He is 11-6 with a 2.77 ERA in 22 career postseason starts, including 5-2, 2.93 with the Yankees.

Cole, the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner, went 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 17 starts this season. He started what turned out to be the Yankees' final game of the season, Wednesday night’s 7-6 loss to the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series at the Stadium, and was brilliant though four hitless,  scoreless innings.

But the fifth inning devolved in a hailstorm of mistakes — which included errors by Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe and a brain freeze by Cole on Mookie Betts’ bases-loaded grounder to first base in which he didn’t cover the bag — that led to the Dodgers scoring five  unearned runs after two were out to tie it at 5-5.

Although Cole allowed only one earned run in 12 2/3 innings in two World Series starts, the Yankees lost both games, thanks in large part to the poor defense they played behind him.

“This is as bad as it gets. It’s the worst feeling that you can have,” said Cole, who still is without a championship in his otherwise stellar career and who, as a member of the 2019 Astros, lost to the Nationals in seven games in the World Series. “Ultimately, we came up short and it’s . . . it’s brutal.”

If the Yankees take the unlikely step of allowing Cole to reach free agency again, he would join a crowded field of quality starters on the market, a group that includes Max Fried, Corbin Burnes, Jack Flaherty, Blake Snell, Yusei Kikuchi and Walker Buehler.

The Yankees made another unsurprising move on Saturday, declining their $17 million option on  first baseman Anthony Rizzo, 35, instead exercising the $6 million buyout in his deal and  making him a free agent.

Rizzo, a clubhouse leader at a similar level of Judge — though without the title of captain owned by his close friend — is coming off two injury-plagued seasons, the reason the team’s decision Saturday was fully expected.

Rizzo, speaking after Wednesday night’s loss, seemed to sense it as well.

“I feel like I have a lot to offer to this game in a lot of different ways,” said Rizzo, a standout member of the 2016 Cubs, who ended a  drought without a World Series title that had extended to 1908.

Tugging lightly at his pinstriped jersey, he said later: “I don’t want to take this off.”

Rizzo, who didn’t play in the Division Series against the Royals because of two broken fingers on his right hand after getting hit by a pitch in the second-to-last game of the regular season, played with the broken fingers in the American League Championship Series against Cleveland and then in the World Series. Rizzo went 8-for-30 (.267) with a .421 on-base percentage in 10 games (nine starts) in those two rounds.