Yankees’ Gerrit Cole making his case as one baseball’s best pitchers

BRONX — After watching the performance Gerrit Cole had against the Minnesota Twins it’s easy that the Yankees ace still doesn’t have a Cy Young Award. Cole’s starts have been nothing short of can’t-miss baseball as he’s pitched his way to four wins in his first four starts of the season and dominated the hitters at the plate.

Sunday was no different as Cole pitched his second double-digit strikeout game of the season in a complete game shutout and became the first Yankees’ pitcher in franchise history to record a sub-1.00 ERA and 30 strikeouts in their first four appearances of the year. Cole also tied the franchise record for double-digit strikeout games with his 23rd as a Yankee on Sunday afternoon.

The list of notes on Cole could take up an entire page the way he’s thrown this season. He has shown a greater command of his pitches and the pesky home run issue that plagued him last season hasn’t appeared.

“Special pitcher and he’s just in a really locked-in, focused place,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Cole’s start to the season. “I think the fact that he’s pressuring his fastball with so many different places and so he’s got a presence inside. He’s been really good up in the zone, down, away. I mean, but command of that, it makes you a little less predictable. Makes you a little less comfortable humming a certain quadrant and a spot because he is mixing more. But on top of that, you got to be able to command it and that’s what he’s doing great.”

Cole’s start to the year has been far and away his best as a Yankee and his 0.95 ERA through the first four starts this season is the best he’s had in his career during that timespan. The best ERA he had put up in the first four games had been a 0.96 in 2018 when he was with the Houston Astros.

Command was something that Cole had worked on during the offseason, joking that it should always be something that a player is working on.

“Maybe a bit of conviction,” Cole said about what he worked on. “Solid game plan in terms of when we want to go to areas and when we feel strongly about going to those areas.”

His success has put him in the early Cy Young conversation and Boone said that it would be a matter of when, not if, Cole gets the prestigious award. But with Cole’s numbers being some of the best in baseball right now, should Cole be in the conversation as one of the best pitchers in the major leagues?

Boone seemed to think so.

“I think it’s fair to throw him in that conversation, Absolutely. And I think he always is, but I do think even going into this year you know, I think he’s probably been on some level underrated, underappreciated,” Boone said. “He’s great. He’s a great pitcher I believe is gonna end up in Cooperstown. But he’s so responsible and diligent and cares about his profession, his team, his teammates. Like he’s, he’s all in and takes a lot of responsibility of being that guy.”