Gerrit Cole’s first rehab start is the emotional boost the Yankees desperately needed

The New York Yankees got a much-needed win over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night, but that was far from the most notable development of the evening. About 60 miles southwest of the Bronx, Gerrit Cole took the mound for the team's Double-A affiliate in Somerset, New Jersey, kicking off a rehab stint the team hopes will result in his return to the big-league rotation at some point in late May.

The numbers don't jump off the page: Cole allowed three runs on three hits and a walk over 4.1 innings of work (44 pitches) against the Reading Fightin Phils, striking out three.

But the numbers aren't the real story here. The only thing that matters is that Cole emerged from his first Minor League outing feeling healthy and still on schedule — and that schedule is right on time for a Yankees pitching staff that could really, really use him right now.

Gerrit Cole's first rehab start was exactly what the Yankees were hoping to see

This probably doesn't need to be reiterated in the year 2026, but you can pretty much throw out the top-line numbers when evaluating how Cole looked on Friday night. For starters, three of the four base-runners he allowed came in the second inning, with the lone exception an infield single on a soft grounder in the fourth. Other than that, Cole was clean — and most importantly for the Yankees, he looked to be right on schedule in getting back to his something like his old self.

Cole threw 36 of his 44 pitches for strikes, and filled up the zone with all of his pitches. That's no small thing, considering that command can be one of the last things to return for a pitcher coming back from Tommy John. And while his velocity started out around 92-93, that's to be expected for a guy who hadn't pitched in game action in nearly a month. What matters for New York's purposes is that Cole's fastball steadily crept up as his outing went along, and that he was able to hit 95 and 96 in the his final inning of work. Once Cole has a couple more outings under his belt to build up his arm strength, and once he has the adrenaline of facing real big-league hitters in real big-league games, his radar gun readings should be back toward where we expect them to be.

Add it all up, and it's easy to get excited about where Cole is at right now. He remains on track to be back in New York's rotation around the end of May as scheduled, and he doesn't look all that different from the guy we saw pitch to a 3.41 ERA over 17 starts in 2024 — and shoved in the postseason, until his defense got in the way.

Is that pitcher the same perennial Cy Young contender we saw a few years ago? Almost certainly not. Cole is 35 now, coming off of major surgery. But with the strides he's made in tweaking his arsenal as he's aged, and with what we've seen so far in the spring and on Friday night, it seems fair to pencil him as at worst a solid mid-rotation arm. And really, that's all these Yankees need to transform their whole pitching staff.

Gerrit Cole's return could kill two birds with one stone for New York

The best thing about Cole's return is that New York isn't in a position where it needs him to be an ace. Max Fried remains a stalwart, and Cam Schlittler's meteoric ascent during Cole's absence has given the Yankees two legitimate frontline arms to lean on.

What the Yankees need is simply reliable depth. Injuries to Cole and Carlos Rodon have thrust Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil into roles for which they might not be best suited at this point in their respective careers. Gil, in particular, has been a sore spot; at this point, he's just not a big-league starter anymore, and yet New York has run him out there every fifth day for no other reason than a lack of better options.

Better options are coming. With both Cole and Rodon on the mend, it won't be long before the Yankees rotation features those two plus Fried, Schlittler and just one of either Warren or Weathers. Heck, even if you want to include both of the latter two and use a six-man rotation, with an eye toward preserving your injury-prone veterans for the stretch run, that's still a starting staff you can feel very good about.

And it also comes with the added benefit of potentially helping a problematic bullpen as well. The Yankees have been operating with one hand behind their back in that department so far this year, and the results show as much: New York ranks 18th in reliever ERA so far this year, despite ranking just 24th in bullpen innings. David Bednar has stabilized after a bumpy start, but beyond he, Fernando Cruz and lefty specialist Tim Hill, there really aren't any arms you feel great about handing a late lead to. That's not a recipe for success over the long haul.

But Cole's return might finally give the Yankees the flexibility they've been searching for. Gil's diminished stuff isn't tenable two or three times through an order, but he might be able to recapture some of his prior form with better velocity in short spurts. Even Warren or Weathers would figure to profile well in relief roles, potentially over multiple innings a la 2022 Michael King. New York is currently stretched thin everywhere; if Cole hits the ground running at some point next month, they'll finally be able to breathe again, with ramifications all the way down the roster.

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