Can Gerrit Cole and Josh Donaldson co-exist with the Yankees?

Once bitter adversaries, Josh Donaldson and Gerrit Cole now find themselves teammates on the New York Yankees and forced to put aside their feud

On a normal day, a midweek matchup in early June between the New York Yankees and the last-place Minnesota Twins wouldn’t attract much attention. But last June 9 was no ordinary time.

Four days earlier, Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson had said aloud what many around baseball were thinking: was Gerrit Cole’s drop in performance, coming right after MLB began cracking down on illegal substances, a coincidence?

Donaldson singled out the Yankees right-hander, who struggled to answer a question about whether he used Spider Tack. Spider Tack is a substance invented by two strongmen competitors to allow powerlifters to more easily grab Atlas Stones. It also found another use, one never intended by its creators: when a pitcher applied it to their fingers, they were able to grip the ball better and, thus, generate more spin and movement with their pitches.

MLB finally took note of this illegal advantage being used by pitchers and started instructing umpires to regularly check for “sticky substances” between innings. Cole, who began June with a sub-two ERA, suddenly had one of his worse starts since joining the Yankees, giving up five runs in five innings against the Rays. The stat that caught everyone’s attention, though, was his spin rate, which fell to his lowest since 2018.

All but called a cheater by Donaldson, Cole had extra motivation when he took the mound to face the Twins on that Wednesday night in Minnesota. In the first inning, he struck him out with a curveball. Two innings later, Donaldson fanned on a high slider. And in the sixth, Donaldson flied out to right, Cole starring him down as he headed back to the Twins dugout.

There was no love lost between the two, and Cole admitted he didn’t plan on discussing it with Donaldson afterward. “I don’t see any need to. I’m good,” he said after the game. “But if he has anything more to say, he’s welcome to reach out or whatever.”

Can Josh Donaldson and Gerrit Cole coexist?

Donaldson also went 0-3 with two strikeouts against Cole in an August rematch at Yankee Stadium. He’s 0-9 in his career against Cole, tied for his most at-bats without a hit against a pitcher. So it must have come as a bit of relief when Donaldson found out on Sunday he won’t have to face Cole anymore. That these two adversaries are now teammates, the Twins sending Donaldson, infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and catching prospect Ben Rortvedt to New York in exchange for Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela.

A day later, Donaldson was already at Yankees camp, greeting his new teammates and taking ground balls as he donned the iconic pinstripes for the first time. There has, so far, been little indication that the feud between him and Cole is still simmering.

Bickering Yankees teammates is nothing new. The clubhouse of the “Bronx is Burning” Yankees of Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin more closely resembled a crumbling marriage, but they still pulled through to win back-to-back World Series.

Last June, after his long day at the plate against Cole, Donaldson signaled a readiness to move on. Cole wasn’t the only one to see their spin rates drop precipitously, he said.

The feud was a brief flash in time. It’s now 2022. The Yankees are, once again, World Series contenders. They now have a former AL MVP playing third base and a pitcher capable of winning a Cy Young Award at the top of their rotation.

It could be worse for the Yankees, even if two of their star players will never be best friends off the diamond. They just need them to co-exist on it, and so far, it seems like they will.