{"id":611244,"date":"2026-03-07T06:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611244\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:46:24","slug":"yankees-gerrit-cole-felt-good-as-he-checks-another-key-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611244\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Gerrit Cole ‘felt good’ as he checks another key box"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 Another week, another box checked for Gerrit Cole<\/a>, all while continuing to impress the Yankees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five days shy of the one-year anniversary of undergoing Tommy John surgery, Cole threw two innings of live batting practice Friday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field, taking another step in his buildup toward what the Yankees hope is an early-season return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The veteran right-hander threw 30 pitches, including breaking balls, and topped out at 97.5 mph with his fastball against the last batter he faced. \u201cIt actually felt good,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThe second inning felt really good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This marked the third time Cole has faced hitters this spring, but the first across two innings and the first time Boone has watched from behind the mound, since the Yankees were playing on the road the last two times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boone indicated he was most encouraged by Cole\u2019s command, something that often is the last thing to return for pitchers coming back from Tommy John.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throwing live batting practice during a workout at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida in late February. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what feels remarkable to me about what I\u2019ve watched in my handful of bullpens that I\u2019ve seen him, his live,\u201d Boone said. \u201cI know we\u2019re talking about the stuff and obviously everyone gets excited about that, but how sharp he is [is impressive].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cole has reiterated a 14-18 month timeline for a return to the big league mound, which would mean May 11 at the earliest. <\/p>\n

The Yankees are also cognizant of the fact that he did not throw a single inning last season and want to give the former AL Cy Young the best chance to be available to pitch in big games late in the year, so they will be disciplined with his timeline despite how good he has looked.\u00a0<\/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

\u201cTrouble is coming,\u201d top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange said with a grin through an interpreter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lagrange alternated innings with Cole and continued to dazzle with his fastball that regularly hit 101 mph.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s silly,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like it. It\u2019s wild. \u2026 I\u2019m just blown away by the velocity every time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GerritGerrit Cole throwing live batting practice. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk, who arrived at camp last week<\/a> as a non-roster invite, is likely to make his spring debut Monday. \u2026 Carlos Rod\u00f3n, rehabbing after offseason elbow surgery to shave a bone spur and remove loose bodies, is scheduled to throw another bullpen session Saturday and could begin facing hitters his next time out. \u2026 Rafael Montero has still not reported to camp because of visa\/paperwork issues after signing a minor league deal on Feb. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Yankees reassigned RHP Adam Kloffenstein to minor league camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 Another week, another box checked for Gerrit Cole, all while continuing to impress the Yankees.\u00a0 Five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611245,"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-611244","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\/116186554118296086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611244","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=611244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}