NEW YORK — It’s been two full years plus a COVID season since Gerrit Cole joined the Yankees, and his most memorable exploits were getting blasted at the 2021 wild-card game in Boston and the infamous press conference where he froze like a deer in the headlights when asked about his use of sticky stuff.
To kill any nonsense from the peanut gallery, he’s still been very good. In fact, he’s been one of the best pitchers in the league. Since signing his colossal contract with the Yankees, Cole ranks second among qualified pitchers in strikeout rate, fourth in innings pitched, fifth in WHIP and ninth in Wins Above Replacement. He’s been an All-Star in each of his Yankee seasons where the exhibition wasn’t canceled by the pandemic and has finished in the top 10 of Cy Young voting in all three years.
Anyone trying to hot take their way into the opinion that Cole has been bad is flatly incorrect.
