4 emergency Gerrit Cole rotation replacements not named Snell, Cease, or Lorenzen
By Josh Wilson
Look, here's the reality: If Gerrit Cole is out for an extended period of time, the New York Yankees are in a bad way. Cole has been a top-five MLB pitcher year-in and year-out, definitively winning the American League Cy Young award last year. If the team was to compete for a World Series title this season, he was a major part of those plans.
Cole has gone for an MRI, and the team has yet to announce the results of that imaging. Aaron Judge went in for imaging around the same time as Cole, and the team addressed his situation already. Cole's delay doesn't seem to be good.
New York may need to quickly look to other options to replace Cole in the starting rotation. The most frequently mentioned names are free agents like Blake Snell (too expensive, especially given the Yankees luxury tax situation) and lesser-known open-market names like Michael Lorenzen.
Harsh reality? None of those players will replace Cole one-for-one, so perhaps New York is actually better off pulling everyone in the rotation up a slot and trying to backfill the backend.
Here are four players that could sneak in and are realistically available. Two are already on the team.
Luis Gil
Luis Gil got just one nod as a big league starter in 2024, and it didn't go all that great. But when he was called up for spot starting in 2021, he earned a 3.07 ERA and was generally pretty good. Gil missed 2022 due to Tommy John surgery and recovery.
In Spring Training this year, he has put forth an impressive 0.84 WHIP with 14 strikeouts in eight and a third innings pitched.
As it typically is, it's been a long road back from Tommy John surgery for Gil. His lack of a certain spot in the rotation has kept him from breaking into the top level of the organization for most of last year.
Now is the opportunity Gil needs to emerge as a regular starter if the Yankees are without Cole for a few weeks or, worse, the whole season. He's already been mentioned by some as a possible fill-in in the rotation. They'll have a clear need and Gil has emerged in Spring Training as a past-recovery starter ready to take on the challenge.