Gerrit Cole had to take a long pause when he was asked point blank whether he has ever used Spider Tack to enhance his control of a baseball.
“I don’t know, I don’t quite know how to answer that to be honest,” Cole said. “There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players from the last generation of players to this generation of players. I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard, and I’ve stood pretty firm in terms of that.”
Spider Tack is, as The Athletic reported earlier this week, widely considered to be one of the most advantageous substances to increase a pitcher’s spin rate, which many consider to be past the line in terms of using sticky substances to gain an edge. As Cole said, substances to enhance grip have been in the game for generations, but substances like Spider Tack are believed to be crossing a boundary.
MLB is reportedly working on increasing the policing of sticky substances, as ESPN reported that pitchers will have to undergo more umpire checks and players will be subject to a 10-day suspension if caught with illegal substances.
“Again, like I mentioned earlier, this is important to a lot of people that love the game, including the players in this room, fans and other teams,” Cole said. “If MLB wants to legislate other stuff, that’s a conversation we can have. Because ultimately, we should all be pulling in the same direction on this.”
Cole has been at the forefront of sticky substance speculation for years, as his average spin rate jumped from 2,201 rpm in 2017 to 2,559 in 2019. Josh Donaldson called out Cole directly this past weekend when talking to The Athletic, fueling more speculation about Cole’s tactics on the mound.
“Is it coincidence that Gerrit Cole’s spin rate numbers went down (Thursday) after four minor leaguers got suspended for 10 games?” Donaldson said to The Athletic. “Is that possible? I don’t know. Maybe. At the same time, with this situation, they’ve let guys do it.”
Cole’s average spin rate in his last start, in which he allowed five earned runs, saw a drop of more than 100 rpm from his last outing, but he wouldn’t directly say if it was related to use of a sticky substance like Spider Tack.
“I attribute it to, again, just not being as good or as sharp as I wanted to be,” Cole said. “It’s as simple as that…I alluded to it a little bit after the game in terms of getting under the ball, I think we’ve seen a trend the last few games…where I’m just not quite bringing out my best delivery. Of course it’s something that we monitor and of course there are other variables that we monitor as well when evaluating our performance from every game. We try to take as much information as we can as a player, and certainly that’s one of them.”
As for Donaldson’s comments, Cole said he wasn’t paying much attention to them, even with speculation around himself and pitchers across the league seemingly at an all-time high.
“I was made aware of it this week,” Cole said. “Obviously, it’s undesirable, but I understand this topic is important to everybody that cares about the game. In regards to Josh specifically, I kind of felt it was a bit of low-hanging fruit. But he’s entitled to his opinion and to voice his opinion…I just have other things I need to keep my focus on.”
The use of sticky substances is now a big focus for MLB, which is looking to see the game improve upon some of its historically low offensive numbers, and as the league begins to crack down, pitchers like Cole and Trevor Bauer, another starter who saw a sudden spike in spin rate in recent years but saw those numbers dip in recent starts, will be looked at most closely.
“I haven’t seen anything in regards to what exactly they’re gonna do,” Cole said of MLB’s plan moving forward. “So to a certain extent I don’t want to speculate, because I haven’t gotten directed exactly how this is going to play out. But fairness, respect for your opponent, both of those things I think are at the forefront of this. In terms of what comes down and how they’re going to go about it, I probably should just wait on my opinion of that until I see exactly what’s going to go on.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone later said that he has never seen Spider Tack in the clubhouse, and while he has not seen anything official from MLB as a visual aid, he has seen a photo of a ball marred by its use - and he solidified that the Yankees' stance is firm.
"We'll see what my responsibility becomes when things are enforced," Boone said. "Here, we've taken a position as a front office and staff that we want no part of it. We don't want to be in position to encourage different things. That's been my stance, and obviously, as this has become more front and center as a topic, it's something we've addressed in our room, saying hey, look, this is coming, and if you're doing anything below board, we need to clean it up."
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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