TAMPA — Attendance matters.
Strikeouts are sexier, of course. And Gerrit Cole has plenty of those, too.
But strikeouts are like uniform numbers — not hard to find in baseball these days. The durable starter? It might not be a yeti. But it is on the sport’s endangered species list.
In 1992, 54 starters pitched at least 200 innings. It was eight last year. Cole did it for the fifth time in his career. No one else in Yankees camp has done it once.
Luis Severino’s 193 ¹/₃ innings in 2017 is the most by any other current Yankee. He followed that with 191 ¹/₃. In the four years since, he has totaled 120 regular-season innings — or fewer than Cole had by July 29 last year.
Carlos Rodon had his first-ever 30-start season in 2022 and rolled that into a six-year, $162 million contract. Cole’s guarantee is double that — a still record pitcher allotment of $324 million on a nine-year deal. It recognizes the ability to dispense excellence redundantly. Cole has six 30-start seasons — or two more than everyone else with the Yankees combined (Severino 2, Rodon 1 and Frankie Montas 1).
Of course, it is not just attendance. Cole is an ace workhorse, the best combination for traversing the roughly 1,440 innings each team will pitch.
There are no sure health bets in a craft such as pitching designed to destroy the young. But Cole is as close to a 30/200 certainty as anyone to help lessen the 1,440 burden. Think of the value as the Yankees envision divvying up rotation innings with Montas (shoulder) already gone, Cortes nursing a hamstring injury and Rodon and Severino possessing pitching histories befitting WebMD as much as Baseball Reference.
“It’s huge,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “It sets a tone for the group. He will be the first one to tell you that he doesn’t feel great for every start, but he knows the importance of taking the ball and what that means to the team — just the comfort of this guy’s going to post every fifth day brings great stability to the group.”
Cole takes pride in warring against the aches and pains. He became a baseball fan when the ace — if not a few starters on each team — was expected to not just throw as hard as possible for as long as possible, even if it isn’t long at all. He grew up in a Pirates organization that instilled a workhorse ethos.
Cole mentioned how much he “enjoys” the art of pitching and the “blessing” of being able to do it with good health during his first press conference of 2023. Afterward, I asked if he derives more pleasure from being durable in an age when so few are? He said, “I can do it. So I try to squeeze every drop out of it.”
Cole was last on the injured list for a non-COVID reason late in 2016 as a Pirate. Since 2017, no pitcher has more starts (173) or innings (1,070 ²/₃) — or strikeouts (1,392) — than Cole. He noted even the bugaboo of his 2022 season — allowing a MLB-high 33 homers — reflects being out there enough to yield so many.
Cole actually was prickly about the long-ball issue being raised, at one point wondering if when Justin Verlander won the Cy Young in 2019 while giving up 36 homers “how many questions like this he got.” Well, Verlander did win the Cy Young with an ERA nearly a run a game lower than Cole’s 3.50 of last season. Thus, the homers did not hurt Verlander (a 7.4 WAR pitcher in 2019) nearly as much as Cole (a 2.4 WAR pitcher in 2022). As an example, Cole had permitted just three three-run homers from the fifth inning on in his career before surrendering four in 2022 — each of which flushed what had been an outstanding start until that moment.
Being close but not yet securing a Cy Young or championship gives Cole’s career touches of Mike Mussina’s — another durable, excellent starter. For goals, Cole said winning a title as a Yankee is his obsession. And it seems impossible that the Yanks can even take the first step into the playoffs without his ace/bulldog combo.
Cortes, Rodon and Severino have repertoires to pitch like No. 1 starters, but also a physical volatility that is, at minimum, worrying. Especially with Montas already out as the No. 5 starter. Domingo German moves into that spot. Clarke Schmidt is next after that. And spring begins with the Yanks internally feeling best about Jhony Brito, who turns 25 on Friday, has made 15 Triple-A starts and has never amassed more than 116 ²/₃ innings in a season.
It could be a complicated jigsaw puzzle to 1,440 innings. But imagine trying to assemble it without Cole.
“He’s the centerpiece of the rotation,” Blake said. “It gives us a chance to have an anchor every fifth day and just brings incredible stability to the group. He sets the tone and forces everybody else to recognize the quality of work going on here and that helps pull everyone with him.”
