{"id":571436,"date":"2026-02-14T03:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T03:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:24:16","slug":"yankees-gerrit-cole-shows-off-tweaked-delivery-in-first-spring-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571436\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Gerrit Cole shows off tweaked delivery in first spring bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 Whenever Gerrit Cole returns to the big league mound<\/a>, he plans to do so with a slightly tweaked windup.<\/p>\n

During his first bullpen session of spring training Friday, Cole unveiled a new delivery in which he raises his hands over his head instead of keeping them by his belt or chest, as he previously did before undergoing Tommy John surgery last March<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust felt good,\u201d Cole said of the change. \u201cThrowing on the back fields during the summer and tried it out. I\u2019ve had little idiosyncrasies that have changed over the years from still hands to a drop or hands off the body, close to the body. I think I generally just like the rhythm of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole has long been known for his simple and repeatable delivery, which played a hand in the right-hander maintaining good health before finally needing elbow surgery last year. <\/p>\n

\"NewGerrit Cole is pictured during a Feb. 11 throwing session for the Yankees during spring training. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

But the 35-year-old still made the new-look windup look smooth Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of Gerrit and his greatness, a lot of it ties to \u2026 his delivery is just so outstanding,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cThat\u2019s [still] the case. Everything looks like it\u2019s coming out free and easy, command. He looks to be in a really good place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been saying it around here today after seeing it, that diver that dives off the high board and just goes in the water and makes no splash \u2014 that\u2019s Gerrit on the mound. He\u2019s just really efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees officially invited veteran reliever Rafael Montero<\/a> to big league camp Friday after signing him to a minor league deal to join their bullpen competition.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old posted a 4.48 ERA in 59 games last season, but he finished strong with a 2.86 ERA in 20 games with the Tigers down the stretch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some things we really like that he was doing last year,\u201d Boone said. \u201cMaybe some small adjustments we can make to help him. Hopefully, he can push himself into the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cam Schlittler played catch again Friday, as the Yankees have him continuing to throw on flat ground as he deals with mid-back\/left lat inflammation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t got the end-of-day report on him yet but he kind of brushes it off, like, \u2018No biggie,\u2019 \u201d Boone said. \u201cHopefully this is something that just slowing him down serves him well in the total buildup \u2014 I think it will. We\u2019ll see how the next day or two unfolds to see when he gets back on the mound. But hopefully pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relievers David Bednar, Fernando Cruz, Jake Bird and Brent Headrick each threw an inning of live batting practice Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 Whenever Gerrit Cole returns to the big league mound, he plans to do so with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,2281,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,151,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-571436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-gerrit-cole","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-spring-training","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116066849796476978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}