{"id":702676,"date":"2026-05-19T01:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/702676\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:09:24","slug":"yankees-might-pitch-gerrit-cole-vs-rays-for-season-debut-on-friday-instead-of-scheduling-final-rehab-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/702676\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees might pitch Gerrit Cole vs. Rays for season debut on Friday instead of scheduling final rehab start"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Yankees<\/a> currently do not have a starting pitcher slated for Friday\u2019s game against the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>. That might mean Gerrit Cole<\/a> makes his season debut against the first-place Rays.<\/p>\n

That turn in the rotation would have given Elmer Rodr\u00edguez the starting nod. However, the Yankees sent Rodr\u00edguez to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre<\/a> on Monday. With an opening in the rotation, the team is reportedly considering activating the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner on Friday, rather than scheduling him for a final rehab start.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s performance in his latest rehab start is certainly a factor in that thinking. He hit 99.6 mph<\/a> on the radar gun and averaged 97 mph with his fastball in a Triple-A appearance on Saturday. The right-hander pitched 5 1\/3 innings and threw 86 pitches, 56 for strikes.<\/p>\n

Play 2026 Soccer Pick ‘Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world’s biggest soccer tournament<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s on the table, yeah,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged<\/a> when asked if Cole could pitch against the Rays.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wanting to do the right thing, what\u2019s the right timing,\u201d he added to explain the decision-making process. \u201cWhatever we do, it\u2019s with the long game in mind. A need doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we\u2019re bringing him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In six rehab starts, Cole has recorded 28 strikeouts and three walks in 29 innings while compiling a 5.28 ERA. His rehab assignment began on April 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a really long rehab,\u201d Cole told the Associated Press<\/a> before Saturday\u2019s start. \u201cIf you include the offseason from the year prior, it\u2019s been about 17 months since I last performed at the big leagues., so no matter how you slice it, that\u2019s a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Cole, 35, has been working his way back from Tommy John surgery that he underwent last spring<\/a>. He missed the entire 2025 MLB season. During spring training this year<\/a>, his fastball topped out at 98 mph in two appearances.<\/p>\n

Whenever Cole makes his season debut, it will be the first time he has pitched for the Yankees since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series<\/a>. In that start, he allowed five unearned runs (due to errors<\/a> by Aaron Judge<\/a> and Anthony Volpe<\/a>) on four hits with six strikeouts and four walks.<\/p>\n

The Yankees (28-19) went into Monday\u2019s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> three games behind the Rays<\/a> (30-15) for the AL East lead. They have lost nine of their past 11 games while Tampa Bay<\/a> has gone 12-3 thus far in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Yankees currently do not have a starting pitcher slated for Friday\u2019s game against the Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2377],"tags":[1797,106,1205,5,2281,4,297,1415,2550,68,2551,2549,70,142],"class_list":["post-702676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-aaron-boone","tag-aaron-judge","tag-anthony-volpe","tag-baseball","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-mlb","tag-rays","tag-season-debut","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116598575178485593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702676","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=702676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}