Gerrit Cole’s Season-Ending Injury Was Inevitable
By Derek McAdam
March 12, 2025
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With just more than two weeks until the start of the 2025 regular season, the New York Yankees have already been walloped with several new injuries. From Jake Cousins to Giancarlo Stanton to Luis Gil, the injuries just continued to pile on. And the one that is going to possibly sting the most is Gerrit Cole, who is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on Tuesday.
Cole’s injury is not only another blow to the Yankees’ starting rotation, but is also a blow to the entire team. Throughout his time with the Yankees, Cole has been a respected figure in the locker room and someone who is constantly willing to talk with other players about the game, as can be seen in the dugout TV shots on Yankee and national broadcasts. And that is not to say that Cole’s injury will prevent him from doing that. He clearly loves this game and will not be sitting at home watching Yankee games throughout the season.
But it seems to be more of a blow to this organization because Cole is one of the last-remaining workhorses in the entire league. Whenever Cole is on the mound, his body language shows me that he is focused on getting batters out and nothing more. He is not smiling in the dugout after a solid performance, but is almost always pressing Aaron Boone to allow him to go pitch another inning, even if his pitch count is more than 100.
I think Cole’s attitude is one that definitely has an effect on the rest of the team, and that is going to be missed throughout this season since he won’t be able to step foot on the mound.
But let’s be honest: this season-ending injury was bound to happen. When Cole got injured last Spring Training and ended up not needing Tommy John surgery, I was instantly worried. It made me think of Masahiro Tanaka, who partially tore his UCL in 2014 in his debut season with the Yankees. Surgery would have fixed the issue, and he would have been out for the remainder of that season, plus some of the following. But the Yankees and Tanaka decided not to do surgery and instead hope the injury would heal with some injections.
The good news for the Yankees and Tanaka was that it worked, at least for a little while. It may not be known to many, but Tanaka had surgery on his right elbow in late 2023 and only made one appearance during the 2024 season in Japan. And sure, while it gave Tanaka nearly 10 years before he needed a procedure, his elbow could have given out at any moment during that span.
It is a similar situation with Cole. He could have made it through the end of his career without another injury, but he was still going to need the surgery at some point.
What really hurts is that Cole just came back on a four-year deal worth $144 million after he initially opted out of his contract. There may have been doubts from other teams about Cole’s elbow and they were not willing to take the risk. Cole and his agent may have heard about this news and they re-approached Brian Cashman to discuss the future. Cole definitely did not want to leave the Yankees, but this situation was definitely odd.
Cole is turning 35 in September, and will likely miss some time to start the 2026 season with the current trend of pitchers taking much longer than before to recover. But the ultimate question is whether Cole can even return to a shell of the pitcher he has been throughout his career following the surgery. That’s where the contract situation could end up turning into a nightmare for the Yankees, and especially considering they may have another brutal contract situation on their hands with Stanton.
Throughout the past 24 hours, I have seen many social media users blame the Yankees for not checking in on this following the World Series. Although I can’t confirm this, I would assume that the Yankees did follow up on their ace following the season’s conclusion and found nothing too alarming. Plus, Cole made a start in Spring Training before the start that ultimately ended his season, so his elbow must have been okay in that game.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Cashman looks bad for bringing Cole back on that contract and then instantly goes down for an entire year and then some. However, Cashman would have also gotten ripped for letting Cole walk to another team. In the end, this was an injury that was going to happen at some point. The Yankees were hoping they could get four years out of Cole without issue, but that wish was simply not granted.
The Yankees are going to need pitchers such as Will Warren and Marcus Stroman to step their games up. This is the perfect time to show their worth.
