Gerrit Cole, broadcaster?
Well, at the very least, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and Yankees ace joined the YES Network broadcast during the second inning Tuesday night in Arizona — and importantly provided an update on his rehab.
Cole said rehab for his elbow injury (nerve inflammation and edema) is going “smoothly” and that he’s had a number of good days in a row during his first-ever stint on the injured list in his career.
“We’ve had a lot of good days in a row,” Cole said while wearing a headset from the first-base dugout. “Everything’s been going nicely, coming along pretty smoothly. So it’s encouraging for sure.”
David Cone asked Cole how he is building his arm back up without throwing a baseball.
“You build it from all the different vulnerable positions,” Cole said. “And you kinda build it up in each position specifically. As you’re at certain positions of your arm path and what not, you train that positions eccentrically and concentrically. And then you train them from a strength perspective, and then a dynamic perspective and then you kind of put it all together with single-arm [plyometrics] and then eventually throwing the baseball.”
Before Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Cole is close to beginning a throwing program.
A date for that is not yet clear, though.
“I know he’s moving in that direction,” Boone said. “Everything seems to be going well so far.”
Cole chatted on a number of other topics, including the team and Anthony Volpe’s hot start.
The shortstop, who went 4-for-4 on Monday, started Tuesday with an opposite-field single in the second inning.
“This kid’s on fire,” Cole said before adding that Volpe has a “flatter path” and is a player with a huge growth mindset.
Cole added that the 5-0 start the Yankees built up “means a lot” to both the team and the fanbase, but admitted a few of the games against the vaunted Astros could have gone either way, but he won’t complain if any luck bounced the Bronx Bombers’ way.
When play-by-play man Michael Kay asked Cole if playing for the Yankees — a team the pitcher grew up rooting for — lived up to the dream, he answered in the affirmative.
“It’s so special to wear this uniform, to be associated with the city, to call the city your home and represent the Yankee brand and the great Yankee players that have come before you,” Cole said. “It’s one of a kind.”
— Greg Joyce contributed to this report.
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