Gerrit Cole will stay with the Yankees on the remainder of his initial contract, source says
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws during the second inning in Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
Gerrit Cole is coming back to the Yankees after all.
After Cole opted out of the remainder of his nine-year, $324 million contract on Saturday, the Yankees and the ace pitcher agreed to stay together on the remainder of Cole's original contract, a source tells Newsday's Erik Boland.
Cole has four years and $144 million remaining on his deal, which he signed before the 2020 season.
After he opted out, the Yankees could have brought him back on their own by adding a fifth year worth $36 million to the deal (essentially locking Cole in as a Yankee through 2029). Instead, the sides agreed to continue with the current deal, essentially as if Cole did not opt out.
The two sides will continue to talk potential extension options, the source confirmed.
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.
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.
