MOOSIC — At PNC Field, home of the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the pitch speed on the scoreboard rounds up.
So when Gerrit Cole threw a four-seam fastball 99.6 mph in the top of the third inning of his latest rehab start Saturday night against the Syracuse Mets, “100” popped up on the board. Later, in the fifth inning, he hit 99 mph with another four-seamer.
“Just the progression, getting stronger and stronger every outing,” Cole said. “It’s been coming the last few weeks.”
Those pitches
were the highlights of a solid performance on Saturday by the six-time All-Star and 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner as he moved another step closer to returning to the New York Yankees from reconstructive elbow surgery on March 11, 2025. Cole went 5.1 innings and allowed one run and six hits with one walk and six strikeouts. He threw 86 pitches, 56 for strikes.
“Felt really good,” Cole said. “Some good velocity tonight, some good locations. Some good quick innings and some innings that tested us.”
Going in, Cole was expected to throw about 80 pitches. So when he was at 83 after five innings, there was plenty of speculation that would be it for him.
However, Cole came out for the top of the sixth. He retired Christian Arroyo on a groundout to third on one pitch, then got ahead 0-2 on erstwhile Yankees prospect Eric Wagaman. That’s when RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan emerged from the dugout to pull Cole. Turns out 86 was the number.
In each of his first five rehab starts, his pitch count has increased — 44 on April 17th, 52 on April 23rd, 60 on April 29th, 69 on May 5th, and 77 on May 10th. “So far, so good, it’s been a good progression,” Cole said. “Pitch count is steadily increasing, recovery has been good and velocity and command are steadily increasing as well.”
Duncan thought Cole looked really good. He felt he was aggressive in the strike zone and had command of all his pitches. “He was doing what Gerrit does best,” the manager said. “He was hitting spots, working his pitches off each other, making it hard for the opposing hitters. It was a lot of fun watching him.”
Catcher Ali Sánchez agreed.
“He was commanding the fastball, it was good velo on it,” Sánchez said. “The two-seam was moving good. The sinker was good. Everything was working really good. Curveball, slider, changeup to lefties. He threw some good ones. He mixed it to righties, too. It was a great job by him.”
Cole retired the first seven batters he faced, including strikeouts of Ryan Clifford to end the top of the first and Cristian Pache to begin the third. Then things got a bit interesting.
Jackson Cluff and Kevin Parada followed with one-out singles. With two outs, Ji Hwan Bae hit a groundball wide of first base that Ernesto Martínez Jr. fielded and flipped to Cole covering. However, the speedy Bae beat Cole to the bag and was safe on an infield single. Cluff never stopped running on the play and headed for home. Cole turned and threw to the plate, but Cluff just got his hand in under the Sanchez’s tag to score and make it 2-1, Scranton.
Sánchez had hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second to put the RailRiders in front.
“A guy scored from second base on a groundball to the first baseman,” Cole said. “I made a really good play overall, but they’re really fast. I anticipated him coming around to home and made a strong throw. But we just didn’t convert an out or prevent a run. It was a little frustrating.”
To end the inning, Cole struck out Clifford. It was during that at-bat that he threw the 99.6-mph four-seam fastball.
With one out in the fourth, Wagaman doubled. Yonny Hernandez followed with a single to left. Wagaman tried to score, but Jonathan Ornelas threw him out at the plate. Pache followed with a single that sent Hernandez to third, but Cole struck out Cluff to strand the runners.
He made it three straight strikeouts when he got Parada looking and Nick Morabito swinging to open the Syracuse fifth. Cole then got ahead of Bae 0-2, but he threw four consecutive balls to walk him, including another 99-mph four-seam fastball on ball one.
“I was repeating the changeup a few times,” Cole said. “For the most part that was good. That, unfortunately, was one package of two in a row where I lost the zone a little bit and then didn’t make a good pitch 3-2.”
Clifford flew out to right field for the final out of the fifth. Cole then threw the three pitches in the sixth to conclude his sixth rehab start. On the night, he averaged 97 mph on the heater and induced 13 combined swings and misses from his full arsenal — including seven from his changeup alone.
Well after Cole exited, Syracuse rallied to win in 10 innings, 6-2. The Mets tied it in the eighth inning, then struck for four runs in the top of the 10th.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone has told reporters in New York that Cole likely will need one more rehab start before returning to the majors. Despite Max Fried recently being placed on the injured list and expected to miss at least a month with a left elbow bone bruise, the Yankees won’t rush Cole back. Elmer Rodríguez was recalled to take Fried’s spot and will start the Subway Series matinee today at Citi Field.
“That’s a challenge, but my job is to stay focused on my progression and my start from week to week,” Cole said. “Max obviously is an integral part of our rotation and our team. It’s unfortunate, but thankfully we have good depth in order to cover him in the interim. In situations like this, it’s just important to remain focused on what their job is. I fall into that category as well.”
Whether that likely final start will be with the RailRiders again remains to be seen. They have a series in Allentown, Pa., against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs next week.
“I’m sure Cash (GM Brian Casheman), Boonie, the whole group will talk about his outing here along with Gerrit and make a decision,” Duncan said. “We’ll be ready if it is here. If not, we’ll have the privilege of watching him in the big leagues.”
Cole admits he is itching to return to the majors. He pointed out that when you include the offseason following the 2024 season, it has been more than 17 months that he has pitched in the bigs.
“No matter how you slice it, that’s a long time,” Cole said. “I feel like we’ve executed one step at a time and it’s been going really well. I just take it week to week. There’s always something to work on. I’m never really satisfied.”
