When Gerrit Cole is on the mound for the Yankees, watching eyes tend to be just as fixated behind the plate as they are on the mound.
Cole, the team’s unquestionable ace and one of the best pitchers in the league, is must-see TV any time he’s atop the slope, as he showed with his seven shutout innings and 13 strikeouts against the Orioles on Tuesday, but many focus on the harmony between Cole and his battery mate at catcher. On Tuesday night, it was Higashioka, and Cole’s dominant outing only furthered questions about who will be behind the plate for the bulk of Cole’s starts this year.
After Tuesday’s win, Aaron Boone remained committed to giving both Higashioka and Gary Sanchez plenty of looks with Cole this season.
“I’ll pair [Higashioka and Cole] up I’m sure a fair amount, but I also felt like, especially going back to Opening Day, I felt like Gary and Gerrit were really good together, so I’m comfortable with either one of those guys,” Boone said.
Higashioka slowly turned into Cole’s personal catcher as the 2020 season wore on, which became easier to justify while Sanchez labored through a brutal season-long slump at the plate. Cole found his stride with Higashioka down the stretch of the 2020 season, including in October, which raised questions through the offseason and spring training about Higashioka’s role with Cole in 2021.
That relationship seems to still be humming after Cole mowed down the Orioles on Tuesdya.
“Higgy and him definitely have a food thing going and a ying and a yang, and just the detail in between starts allows Higgy to kind of focus on that,” Boone said.
Of course, Cole was effective on Opening Day with Sanchez as well, allowing just two runs against a much tougher Toronto lineup, and Sanchez’s two early home runs this season make it tougher to leave him out of the lineup just to line up Higashioka with Cole, leaving Boone not wanting to press the issue, but when the stars align, he will give each catcher plenty of innings with the team’s star ace.
“I’m not going to go all-in on that by any means, just because I think it works well with Gary as well, but Higgy will definitely, if it works out in the week and that’s the day off that kind of lines up, so be it,” Boone said.
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