After undergoing an MRI on his right elbow Monday, Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees still don’t have definitive results of the reigning AL Cy Young’s tests.
Manager Aaron Boone said on Tuesday that Cole was to undergo more tests on Tuesday and that “it’s still probably going to be a couple of days until everybody weighs in on it.” (h/t Bryan Hoch, MLB.com)
Regardless of the results, which might not come until the end of the week, Boone added that it is likely that the 33-year-old right-hander will not be ready for the start of the 2024 season.
Issues with Cole’s elbow began cropping up in recent days when he complained of difficulties recovering from his short outings during spring training with the wear on his elbow feeling as though he pitched a full, regular-season outing.
Cole is the backbone of the Yankees’ rotation, which already is rife with uncertainty — they are hoping that both Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes can have bounceback seasons. He’s coming off an award-winning 2023 campaign in which he went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA with 222 strikeouts in 209 innings of work last season.
Early projections suggest that Marcus Stroman, who was signed this winter as a No. 2 option, will be the Yankees’ Opening Day starter earlier this month. But given the uncertainty of their ace’s status, general manager Brian Cashman might be more inclined to make a run at one of the two big-name free-agent pitchers still left on the market in Bake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.
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