New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is now 14 months removed from Tommy John surgery and currently on a rehab assignment in the minor leagues. Unfortunately, some recent antics of his has the fans questioning if he's ready mentally to pitch for them again.
Cole has been playing with the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades for the past few weeks but on Tuesday had a rough start against Winston-Salem. In the first inning, Winston-Salem's Caleb Bonemer hit a home run off Cole's fifth pitch of the game. Bonemer followed that up with a single on a his second at-bar. His third at bat saw Cole do something he shouldn't have.
On the very first pitch against Bonemer in the top of the fifth, Cole blasted Bonemer with a 97 mile-an-hour fastball. While it's not clear if Cole did so intentionally and no fight ensued, former MLB pitcher Seth McClung publicly declared that it was a clear intentional hit.
"This is what being hit intentionally looks like. I have no context to what happened, I don’t need it. Honestly there’s no reason a big leaguer (rehab) needs to hit a minor leaguer," McClung wrote on X.
"Always a loser"
While there were some fans who feel that the criticism of Cole is overblown, many declared that it was a loser move by the All-Star pitcher and that he should be ashamed of himself.
"Cole is and always has been a loser of a person. Good pitcher. Douche person. Bad teammate also. Clubhouse cancer. Bring him back up to the Yankees so he can slow their winning percentage down," one user on X replied.
"Garrett Cole bullying minor leaguer cause he hit a HR off him," another mocked.
"The context is Gerrit Cole is a loser and always has been. Very good pitcher, very big loser," wrote a third.
"Gerrit Cole is such a [expletive] loser man it’s insane that the Yankees pay him $36m What’s wrong with him seriously? This is so pathetic & anybody whose played baseball on any level at all should agree. He’s a Cy Young winner & acted like a straight up [expletive] with this [expletive]."
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Cole has not played in a game since the 2024 World Series - a 7-6 loss to the Loss Angeles Dodgers in Game 5. At 35 years of age and struggling to put away batters in High-A, he may not have many years of baseball left at all - let alone on a Major League level.
Even if that pitch was just a wild throw and not an intentional hit on a 20-year-old batter, it looks like Cole has a longer road back to the Yankee Stadium mound than we though.
