In the 2023 All-Star Game, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole found himself in a playful yet revealing conversation about his favorite hitters. The conversation took an unexpected turn when the ace made a subtle but bold pick between Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and David Ortiz—three legends of baseball.
Responding to Kevin Burkhardt’s question on how he would pitch to the three stars, Cole kicked things off with a quip aimed at Jeter, saying, “Jeter ducked me. We had a doubleheader, he won the first one, and ducked me in the second one.”
The broadcast burst into laughter with Jeter not denying Cole’s accusations, but the tone shifted slightly when he turned to Ortiz. “David, we’ve had a couple in Pittsburgh, back door slider, and he just pulled off a little—he would’ve hit it if he wanted to, but I think he just didn’t see it coming,” Cole said, offering the first hint of his preference.
Gerrit Cole broke down how he would pitch to Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz
He joked that "Jeter ducked me" by not playing in the second game of a doubleheader that Cole once startedpic.twitter.com/Vi1sW41qRS
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 10, 2023
“I never faced A-Rod,” Cole added. He then continued to add more weight to the difficult and often debated batters box debate between A-Rod, Jeter, and Big Papi. “All these guys at some point, you’ve got to own the inside part of the plate. A-Rod was famous for just not expanding in there and making you execute pitch after pitch after pitch. Jeet was great at staying inside the baseball obviously. And I feel like David read people’s minds, quite honestly. There were some pitches that he had no business hitting, and was all over those.”
The final comment, where Cole sounded like a massive Big Papi fanboy, despite being a lifelong Yank, kind of gave away his serious preference for the seven-time silver slugger. The conversation was a clear display of Cole’s subtle admiration for David Ortiz, a notorious Yankee nemesis, especially for those Yankees fans who can never forget the heart-wrenching 2004 ALCS.
For Cole, a lifelong Yankees fan who attended the 2001 World Series held a sign that read, “YANKEE FAN TODAY TOMORROW FOREVER,” and later brought that same sign to his Yankees introductory press conference, this was a significant nod of respect.
When will Gerrit Cole return to the Bronx?
Fast forward to June 2024, and 6x All-Star Gerrit Cole, finds himself fighting a different battle. While the Yankees failed to make it to the playoffs in 2023, the 33-year-old was the one big positive of the season. However, come 2024 the ace is yet to make his first appearance in pinstripes. Nevertheless, his rehab has gone according to plan, and a really strong Yankees rotation has allowed Cole to take his time to recover.
In his second start for Double-A Somerset, Cole pitched 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball, allowing two hits, striking out four, and walking one against Hartford. Despite giving up a home run to Ryan Ritter, his performance was promising. “I thought the pitch count landed in a great spot,” Cole said.
The 33-year-old further added, “Fastball was not very good early, missing in bad places. That definitely progressed to where we executed the last seven or eight of them in a row. The curveball was really sharp. The changeup was really great. The cutter was really great. The slider was—to my eyes it looked OK, but it was coming off the bat hot, didn’t seem like it was fooling anybody. Overall, checked a lot of the boxes.”
Skipper Aaron Boone with his often contagious but delusional wishful thinking, shared his optimism, saying, “I saw his last inning. I saw how he finished. Looked really good.” Cole is expected to make another minor league appearance, with the earliest possible return timeline to be during the home series against Baltimore from June 18-20. When do you think Gerrit Cole will return? How much additional strength will he add to an already formidable Yankees team? Let us know below!
