Brandon Tierney kept it blunt during Wednesday’s show when assessing Gerrit Cole’s latest clunker.
Simply put, if Cole continues to pitch the way he has over the first three games of the season, the Yankees might as well pack it in.
“If Gerrit Cole doesn’t pitch well,” Tierney said. “The Yankees season is over.”
Cole tied a career high by walking five batters in just 1.2 innings of work in a 4-2 win over the Tigers, and was once again left to answer questions about his slow start to the season, which now includes eight earned runs in 11.1 innings. Cole didn’t make any excuses after his brutal performance against a lowly Tigers lineup, but Tierney didn’t see enough fire in the Yankees’ $300 million pitcher who is supposed to carry the pitching staff.
“Don’t give me the weather nonsense…the problem I have with Gerrit Cole, and I can bore you with RPM and chase rate, but the problem I have with Gerrit Cole that I know that you’re seeing, is he doesn’t look comfortable all of a sudden as a New York Yankee,” Tierney said. “He’s looking into space, he’s pounding his glove, he’s throwing like a little leaguer in between innings in front of the Yankee dugout…Gerrit Cole really looks as if he doesn’t want to be here, right now in an early sample this season.”
Cole certainly seemed committed to being a Yankee when he signed a nine-year deal before the 2020 season, and it seemed like that contract was a good investment up until the midway point of the 2021 season, but Cole turned it around and was dominant through the summer before a September hamstring injury, which seemed to leak into his Wild Card disaster at Fenway Park.
“Gerrit Cole was largely sublime a year ago,” Tierney said. “Then he got bamboozled by the Yankees’ biggest rival, and he had to sit on that all winter. Now he’s coming out Billy Crystal’s fault, the weather’s fault, he just doesn’t look comfortable…he didn’t look like he wanted to fight. I didn’t see a guy battling.”
In fairness to Cole, he holds a career 2.93 ERA in 86 career playoff innings, and before his Wild Card hiccup, he had allowed six earned runs in 18.1 innings in the playoffs with the Yankees, including 5.1 innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts on three days rest in game five of the 2020 ALDS. So, he clearly has a proven track record of battling when the stakes are high. But Tierney sees a pitcher who suddenly doesn’t seem comfortable pitching for the team he grew up rooting for, and the team he committed to through 2028.
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