The Gerrit Cole era was officially supposed to be under way by now in New York, but with the MLB season suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, baseball has taken a back seat.
Yet, the Yankees' ace is continuing to stay in shape with hopes of returning to baseball soon by pitching in his backyard at his new Connecticut home.
Cole, along with fellow Yankees teammate and reliever Adam Ottavino, posted photos of the right-hander on Instagram Sunday evening. Cole's caption read "backyard baseball with @adamottavino. Hope you're all staying healthy and safe! God bless."
Backyard baseball with @adamottavino. Hope you're all staying healthy and safe! God bless.
A post shared by Gerrit Cole (@gerritcole45) on Apr 5, 2020 at 9:55am PDT
The 29-year-old pitcher told Mollie Walker of the New York Post that he's been spending his time working out with help from Ottavino, in addition to manager Aaron Boone and catcher Radley Haddad.
"Staying on my regimented workout routine here at my residence," Cole told the Post. "Being able to stay in that routine has been beneficial. Trying to keep the pilot light on like other players and being as ready as we can be when we are called back to being able to play."
While pitching in the backyard is far from staying in game shape, Ottavino told the YES Network that it at least allows him to avoid losing the progress made in spring training.
Should MLB return at some point this year, players will like need to go through an expedited spring training in order to properly prepare for what will be a shortened season.
While MLB is actively discussing different ways to restart the season, there is still a long way to go before returning to that point.
