Gerrit Cole gives an optimistic date for Yankees return

Gerrit Cole landing on the injured list before Opening Day felt like a crucial blow for the New York Yankees. The Yankees having to gut through the first couple of months of the season without the reigning American League Cy Young winner sounded like bad news. Turns out, they've been more than fine.

New York enters play on Tuesday with the best record in the AL, sitting at 33-16. They hold the second-best record in all of baseball. While Juan Soto and Aaron Judge obviously help, this mostly has to do with their pitching.

The Yankees have the third-best starting pitcher ERA in the league, and have the best overall staff ERA. They've done this without Cole. What's even scarier for the league is that Cole is on his way back. He's gone as far as to give an optimistic return date.

Gerrit Cole has Yankees fans excited with optimistic return date

When asked whether he can make his season debut in June, Cole said "I wouldn't rule it out." A June return sounds optimistic, but Yankees fans would obviously be on board if that can happen.

Cole threw a live batting practice session Tuesday and felt great. He even said he hit 96 mph on the radar gun. He was throwing so hard, in fact, that Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake had to tell him to dial it back. While Cole throwing hard and feeling good is a great sign, a June return still sounds a bit too optimistic.

The right-hander still needs to throw another batting practice session or two before the Yankees will even talk about a rehab assignment. As for when those sessions will take place, that's unclear.

It's fair to assume that Cole won't make a rehab start until the start of June. Since he missed the first two months of the season, the Yankees will need him to not only shake off the rust but also to build his pitch count back up. This means he'll need several rehab starts before the Yankees even think about activating him off the IL.

As good as Cole is, the Yankees clearly don't need him for regular season games in May or June. They've done just fine without him, especially on the pitching side. The last thing they need is to rush Cole back only for that to result in some sort of a setback.

The very end of June feels realistic if everything goes right in his rehab. Playing it slow and bringing him back in July might be what ends up happening, though.