Had it all gone as planned, Gerrit Cole would be through his season-opening start, his Yankee Stadium debut and, this weekend, the righty would…
Had it all gone as planned, Gerrit Cole would be through his season-opening start, his Yankee Stadium debut and, this weekend, the righty would have been involved for the first time in The Rivalry.
Oh yeah, he also would already have banked about $9 million of his pitching-record contract.
Instead, Cole plays catch occasionally with manager Aaron Boone in the New York suburbs and waits to see if the coronavirus pandemic is conquered enough so that play can resume.
Amid the shutdown, there are pretty much no winners in the game. But there are degrees of loser.
Cole is losing a chunk — if not all — of his final season in his 20s. He is losing games when he will need that as he tries to make a second-half-of-his-career case for the Hall of Fame. He is losing money. He is losing the chance to establish himself in a new environment in the natural flow of a season.
Now, if the season returns, Cole will be forced to justify his pursuit and contract to a new fan base — one not exactly known for patience — in a condensed period having been thrown out of his normal rhythms (like all players).
So as I follow up on the Mets top 10 last Sunday, this week I tackle the Yankees who are losing the most during this shutdown, with their $324 million man at No. 1:
2. Aaron Boone — He had a club generally viewed as the best in the AL. The Red Sox talent base is down. The Astros’ talent is down because of the loss of Cole, and their morale should have been down because of the ramifications of the cheating scandal.
