Gerrit Cole called Josh Donaldon’s accusatory comments regarding sticky substances “low-hanging fruit” on Tuesday, but dismissed the idea that those comments made his dominance of Donaldson on Wednesday any more satisfactory.
Aaron Judge also downplayed the idea that the Yanks had an added incentive to take down Donaldson and the Twins, but did speak out on Donaldson’s comments, which the former MVP had doubled down on just before Wednesday’s game.
“I really didn’t like it,” Judge said after Wednesday’s win, the team’s second in a row. “I feel like 95 percent of the guys I face in the league, something’s going on. It’s kind of one of those rules I feel like hasn’t been enforced or defined, or whatever you want to say about it. But when it comes down to it, we all have a job to do. Cole’s hot his job to do on the mound, and me as a hitter, no matter what’s going on or what people are using, I’ve got to do my job.”
The use of sticky substances has been thrust into the spotlight by Major League Baseball this season, as the league will ramp up security against the use of substances like Spider Tack. As a result, players like Donaldson have begun to speak out on the advantages a pitcher has when using such substances, and pitchers themselves, like Trevor Bauer, have been speaking out on the issue as far back as 2018.
Cole, who saw his spin rate skyrocket from 2017 to 2019, has become one of the faces of the issue because of those bloated numbers, but his spin rate didn’t open any eyes on Wednesday, as it was only slightly higher than his last start, and he silenced the speculation for at least a night after striking out Donaldson twice and pitching six strong innings.
“That’s what an ace does,” Judge said. “Gerrit is a guy that in any big situation, any noise, big games, he always picks it up a notch, and that’s what we saw tonight…nothing really can faze that guy.”
As the league intensifies its efforts to police the use of substances by pitchers to try and revitalize offense across the sport, pitchers will likely continue to be under heavy scrutiny, and Donaldson’s comments may become just one of many players to call out the issue publicly. But Judge isn’t worried about that getting to Cole or any pitcher on the Yankees’ staff.
“I feel like people are always gonna talk and say things,” Judge said. “It’s just about a guy locking in and forgetting the noise, forgetting all the outside stuff and just doing your job. Higher people above us will answer the questions and find the right answers moving forward with scandals and all that stuff going on, but it’s our job as players to continue to play and keep our head down and do what we can do.”
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