Yankees 2024 Roster Report Cards: Gerrit Cole

On March 11, the Yankees universe held its collective breath when it was announced that reigning Cy Young Gerrit Cole would be undergoing an MRI on his right elbow.

Although everybodys worst fear, a UCL tear, was avoided, the Yankees announced that their ace would miss at least one to two months.

In the end, he would miss almost three full months, not making his season debut until June 19th, a start in which he was limited to just 62 pitches.

Grade: B+ 2024 Statistics: 17 starts, 8-5 record, 95.0 IP, 3.41 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 3.99 xFIP, 25.4 K%, 7.4 BB%, 2.0 bWAR, 1.8 fWAR 2025 Contract Status: four years, $144 million remaining Gerrit Coles 2024 season is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, dropped in the River Styx.

In a vacuum, his numbers are more than acceptable, putting him on pace for roughly a four-WAR season.

In comparison to his Cy Young 2023, this is a major disappointment.

On the other hand, in comparison to the fact that many of us feared him lost for the season plus the first half of 2025 back in March, these numbers were downright fantastic.

We can complicate these numbers even further, however.

Out of the 36 earned runs he surrendered on the season, 12 of them came in a pair of outings against the Mets , a franchise that he has struggled against going back to his time in Pittsburgh (his career 6.99 ERA against them is by far the highest against any individual team).

In his other 15 starts, he averaged just 1.6 runs per outing including ten in which he allowed either zero or one earned run.

Lets not stop there, though.

His worst outing of the season came against Boston on September 14th, when he was riding a no-hitter through 3.1 innings, intentionally walked Rafael Devers with nobody on base, and proceeded to melt down, surrendering seven runs in the next two innings before finally, mercifully, being unceremoniously yanked from the game with one away in the fifth.

How did he follow up that disaster class? By spinning nine innings of one-run ball, earning the win when the offense aided by a pinch-hit double from the injured Juan Soto dropped three in the top of the tenth.

And then he followed that up by outdueling Corbin Burnes as the Yankees took down the Orioles, 10-1, to secure the AL East title.

Even in just 17 starts, Cole found a way to be on the mound for both some of the greatest moments of the season and some of its biggest disasters.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Coles 2024 continued as the calendar turned to October.

He very clearly did not have his best stuff in Game 1 of the ALDS, but managed to grind through five innings and hand the Yankees the chance to win late in the game a chance they took.

Five days later, he took the mound in Game 4 and stifled the Kansas City offense, allowing just one run in seven innings of work, to send the Yankees to the American League Championship Series for the fourth time in eight seasons.

In his one ALCS start, he was knocked out after 4.2 innings, as he struggled to find the strike zone with consistency.

Then, in the World Series , he spun two fantastic starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers , allowing just one run in six innings before manager Aaron Boone pulled him after just 88 pitches and then the bullpen and defense blew the game.

Five days later, with the Yankees backs against the wall, he provided 6.2 innings in which he struck out six and allowed no earned runs.

Once again, though, his defense in this case, three disastrous fifth inning plays that led to five unearned runs let him down, as the Yankees fell short in their attempt to send the series back to LA for Game 6.

Fairly or not, nobodys ultimately going to care about Coles pitching in 2024.

The fact that he brought some stability a rotation that, after an incredible start to the season, struggled in the middle of the summer will be ignored, as will the fact that he largely stifled arguably the most prolific offense in baseball across 12.2 innings on the biggest stage.

Rather, two moments are going to stick in peoples minds: putting up four fingers and sending Devers to first, and not covering first in the fifth in Game 5.

Fortunately for both Cole and the Yankees, they have four more seasons to erase these images from peoples minds..

This article has been shared from the original article on pinstripealley, here is the link to the original article.