Yankees’ Gerrit Cole reveals just how lonely and painful his road back to the mound really was
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Before Gerrit Cole throws his first pitch against the Rays on Friday night, he’ll take a moment to draw a deep breath, the kind that will stretch the lining of his lungs.
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The Yankee Stadium crowd will be on its feet, cheering Cole’s comeback. His teammates will be thankful for the return of their best pitcher. Cole will soak it all in, even if no one quite understands what a long, difficult road he’s traveled.
For the first time since Oct. 30, 2024, Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, Cole will pitch in a major-league game that counts.
The thin scar that snakes along the side of Cole’s elbow is only a physical reminder of his life over the last 14 months. On March 6, 2025, he left his spring training outing against the Twins “concerned” and ultimately needed Tommy John surgery five days later.
The right-hander has a new ligament and a new chapter in his career. But Tommy John surgery is a grueling detour – and not always successful.
“You never hear about the guys who don’t make it back,” pitching guru Tom House, who’s worked with hundreds of pitchers in his career, told me. Of the 300 or so active hurlers who’ve undergone the procedure, approximately 25% have failed to regain their former skills or flamed out altogether.
Cole is one of the lucky ones. Under the care of noted surgeon Neal ElAttrache, the Yankees’ ace progressed to the point of throwing 99.6 mph in his final rehab start at Triple-A on Saturday. Both Cole and club officials agreed he was ready: it was time to rescue the Yankees just as they began a critical series against the first-place Rays.
“I know how fortunate I am,” Cole said in a quiet moment at Yankee Stadium last week. “To be able to pitch again has made me appreciate not just my career, but my family, too. I wouldn’t have gotten through this without them.”
The limitations
New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole taps catcher Austin Wells on the arm as he is taken out of the game against the Toronto Blue Jays during 2025 spring training. Cole's next game, against the Minnesota Twins, was his last before Tommy John surgery.APIt was March 11, 2025, when Cole woke up in the recovery room at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. He’d just undergone a 2.5-hour surgery that involved Dr. ElAttrache’s cutting-edge technique.
Not only did he transplant a tendon from Cole’s wrist to replace the ruptured elbow ligament, but he also placed a collagen-coated fiber tape over the area to act as a brace during healing – a seatbelt of sorts. The advancement has become popular among doctors in the last few years.
Still, the early stages of recovery are as brutal today as they were when Tommy John surgery was first introduced in 1974. Cole awakened from anesthesia in a cast and a hard splint, his elbow immobilized at 90 degrees.
That was the start of two weeks of hell.
“It’s sore, it’s really kind of painful at the beginning,” Cole said before explaining how life changed with his right arm out of commission.
Brushing teeth?
“Left hand.”
Shower?
“You stick the right arm out of the stall like this.”
Getting dressed?
“My wife (Amy) had to help me. I couldn’t wear long sleeves.”
Cutting a steak?
“My wife had to cut it for me. I had to eat left-handed.”
Sleeping?
“Not really good. On my back with my arm stacked up on a bunch of pillows.”
Driving?
“Not until the second week. I was on pain killers for the first.”
Physical activity?
“Squeezing a squishy ball 3-4 times a day.”
The limitations eased after a while. Cole graduated from the splint to a softer sling, which allowed him to at least play the piano. Cole, a gifted musician and singer, realized how much he needed those creative outlets.
It was around mid-April, not long after the Yankees broke camp in Tampa, that Cole grasped how disconnected he was from the club. Players on the injured list all experience the same frustration of missing games, but that’s nothing compared to a year-long absence.
Even after returning to Yankee Stadium to begin physical therapy, Cole rarely appeared at his locker. Typically accessible to the media, Cole turned into a ghost.
Finally, after about a month, I asked Aaron Boone how Cole was doing.
The manager paused a moment before cautiously saying, “Gerrit’s doing the best he can.”
“I was definitely down,” Cole acknowledged. “I would come to the Stadium for a few hours in the afternoon, get my (physical therapy) out of the way and go home.”
The isolation was made worse by the Yankees’ decision to keep Cole out of the dugout during games. His elbow had not yet sufficiently healed to risk accidental contact with a teammate. One hard jolt could’ve set Cole back weeks.
But returning to his family every day lifted his spirits. Cole synced his schedule with those of his sons, Caden and Everett, cooking them breakfast and taking them to preschool. Gerrit ended up enjoying his first baseball-free summer since high school.
“I poured myself into that as much as I could,” Cole said. “That helped a lot. It made me appreciate things that I hadn’t counted on. I realized things are going to be fine on the other side (of retirement).
“But it also made me grateful to have this second chance at baseball. I still want to compete. I still want to live up to my contract.”
No guarantees
New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole has had to do a lot of watching his teammates over the past year-plus.APThe crazy thing about healthy pitchers is that they’re fine until they’re not. Out of the blue, a single fastball can change a career. Every hurler wonders when that day is coming - although some are lucky enough to sail straight through to retirement in one piece.
Greg Maddux, for instance, threw more than 5,000 innings without ever needing arm surgery.
With his perfect mechanics and fanatical training regimen, Cole thought he was on a path similar to Maddux’s – that is, until he experienced elbow irritation in the spring of 2024. That was the first hint of trouble. A year later, Cole was on Dr. ElAttrache’s operating table.
Cole shouldn’t have been surprised. It’s amazing that more pitchers aren’t hurt in the age of surging velocity. They’re bigger and more powerful than ever, but ligaments can’t be trained to get stronger. The imbalance has led to ruptures as major leaguers now routinely exceed 95 mph.
Tommy John surgery has come to the rescue for Cole and many others. But not even the best doctors can guarantee a reconstructed elbow won’t tear a second time.
Case in point: Jacob deGrom, who needed surgery in 2010 and again in 2023.
As Cole steps to the mound in the Bronx on Friday, he will be fully aware of the roll of the dice.
“It’s always a risk, it’s always there,” he said before adding, “You’re never living in a guaranteed life (in baseball). So you go out there and you trust it.”
So far, all the little signs are encouraging. Cole’s velocity is close to what it was five years ago. So are his spin rates. Cole has adopted a traditional over-the-head delivery to add even more power to his arsenal. Both he and the Yankees aren’t just hoping for success; they’re downright ecstatic.
“The objective here is once you start, don’t stop, maintain as much quality as you can,” Cole said. “It’s been a long journey, and I’ve put a lot of good work in. I’m ready to go.”
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