NEWSLETTER
Yesterday, the news on New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was ominous. Unclear, but ominous. He was not recovering as well as he would like between outings, and the Yankees have sent him for an MRI on his elbow to see what’s what. They were expecting thereafter to get multiple opinions on how to proceed.
Today’s update didn’t really clarify things further:
That doesn’t mean Cole will miss significant time – he hasn’t in years and years – but it did make you wonder if the Yankees, whose rotation is already full of question marks, would sprint to get back in on Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery or Michael Lorenzen.
Ah, but what if they instead sprint to get back in on Dylan Cease:
It could be that the Yankees always planned to check in one last time with the White Sox on Dylan Cease before the regular season – their rotation could use another arm, regardless of Cole. But the timing does seem more than coincidental, right?
Of course, here’s the thing: it’s not like Brian Cashman is going to want the White Sox to hold his feet to the fire, so even if he’s to the point where he feels like he HAS TO add another starting pitcher, I really doubt he’d call the White Sox in a panic.
Instead, I wonder if the Yankees are just trying to open up options, knowing that they soon might have to do something (the team is otherwise built to win THIS year, and they cannot let the rotation derail it before the season even begins). So they check back in with the White Sox on Cease in case there’s a deal there to be had, yes, but also so that Scott Boras knows they still have other options. Because you KNOW he was ready to press Cashman on Snell or Montgomery if Cole’s injury is serious. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Yankees reached out on multiple possible starting pitcher trades, just to see what was happening in the market.
Stay tuned.
