Gerrit Cole injury update | The Yankees have found their leadoff hitter

welcome back to Fireside Yankees with Alex and Ryan talking about Garrett Cole leaving yesterday's game after six beautiful Innings of one-run baseball Cole was looking like his usual monster self and then pulled himself out of the game with what looked like a right calf injury we didn't really know what was going on at first he said there was no pain walking there was really no pain at all when he was doing normal things but then um did mention that on his follow through he was feeling something so you know Ryan looking at this situation it's been reported since that it was just cramps which is like the best case scenario but he could still miss his next start and they just be precautious and you know obviously show a little bit of uh just caution in general with his injury you don't want to test stuff like this you don't want to risk it with gar Cole you know how are you feeling right now about that luckily it seems we dodged the I guess anything serious or severe that could keep him out for a long period of time I think anytime you talk about a pitcher injury and you can f Fus more on the lower part of their body and not the upper half that's always uh you know somewhat encouraging kodai senga did go down with a cal injury with the Mets it was a c strain it basically knocked him out for the rest of the season so I think my first concern was that whether it was a stra a strain or a cramp it seemed to have been a cramp and you know what I think is important is that it's Texas it's Arlington it's you know the start of September it's cooler here in New York but you know over there it is Storm season it's when you know hot and cold uh air start to mix cold air from the north hot air from the south uh that typically creates stormy weather humid weather so you know it's unbearable heat I know that's a dome it's it's kind of uh heat control but it it can be hot on that field uh and you know thankfully as you mentioned you know I think we avoided something really serious here with gar Cole uh obviously they'll do some testing maybe something comes up that isn't so great but I I would lean on this is pretty encouraging um and I would say this about Garrett Cole he has been awesome since that start against the Mets really it is the two starts against the New York Mets that have made him look not great uh if you look at his his starts since uh July 30th which is his last 11 starts a 2.95 ra a 3.31 FIP uh a 1.03 home runs per night is basically League average he struck out 28.5% of batters faced if you want to look at just uh his last five starts he has a 31.3% strike art rate his erra is sub two over that stretch it's 1.59 his V you know I know that there's some instances where like oh he's throwing 92 93 what's going on but he seems to be packing his V for some big spots and getting himself rolling I think what might have been happening is that he's might he might be dealing with cramps and you know maybe it's just not allowing him to get off to the way he wants to start he's kind of preserving it the pitch I think has really impressed me though is the curveball the knuckle curveball was solid for him last year it wasn't his first second or third pitch it was you know it's F always been fastball primary um his slider became his secondary pitch uh you know kind of after with the Yankees and with Houston um that's always been his go-to secondary and the cutter kind of became that tertiary pitch for him last year now it's the curveball as a secondary pitch and that curveball dude it's gross that knuckle curve is disgusting uh his knuckle curve ball uh it has uh 54.7 in of drop which is a little bit more than last year at 53.9 um it's not moving as much horizontally but I think that's fine I think what you want with the knuckle curveball is more of that uh straight drop to play off of the fast ball um it's been awesome for has a 34.1% whiff rate batters are hitting 17 4 with a 196 slug against it um his fast ball whiff rate has actually ticked up from last year a little bit it's at 23.7% compared to 22.8% this season uh a putaway rate of 22.5% compared to 21.6% the vertical movement on his fast ball is actually up by a little bit just a tiny bit it's nothing notable uh but the vertical rides there the v's roughly there I feel good about his ability to separate vertically in terms of just again like getting that north south movement slider's actually picking up uh similar whiffs to last year I feel pretty good about those three pitches the pitch that I think he needs to get back is that cutter that cutter isn't getting as much ride as it did last year I think it's not it hasn't been an impact pitch for him because of it last night I think we saw a better version of the cutter than we had saw saw all year the change up he's been throwing it a little bit more aggressively and he's actually been getting some decent uh numbers with it as of late but again it comes down to that fast ball and having at least one of his two breaking balls but if he has both if he has the fast ball slider curveball going that's Houston Garrett Cole folks that's that's Houston that's the Garrett Cole that should have won the 2019 sa young so you know I feel really encouraged with with where he's at and Alex this team needs an ace this team need got to step up and last night they need a guy to step up and make a big time start they had just lost that game they had lost a terrible Series against the Cardinal lost a terrible Series against the Nationals gar Cole delivered last night that's exactly what you expect from him and he's been awesome really for the last month or or month or so absolutely I mean Cole has looked like the ace version of himself um you know this is a guy that the Yankees need healthy for the duration of this season and notably during the playoffs so uh right now I think it's important the Yankees give him as much time as he needs to just shake this off and and get back to where he is he might maybe he skips one start but we still get three more starts out of him going into the playoffs I think we can be pretty happy with that uh given the progress that he has made but I really wanted to talk about a positive thing here with glaver Torres and you know glaver Torres is putting together what seems to be a late season Resurgence he has really come back from the dead uh glabber was one of those Verdugo situations or even the M situations where he just was absent he was not playing well defense was bad still you know not doing so well defensively but he has been making some bigger plays as of late and offensively was a complete liability but he's found a home with the leadoff spot he's his Chase rate ranks in the 92nd percentile this is a guy that yeah his slugging metrics are basically at career lows across the board but he's making good quality contacts singles doubles you know getting on base a little bit more his walk rate's going up his numbers at the leadoff spot have been really really solid lately um I think it's it's fair that we give him his flowers we've talked about him a little bit more frequently recently um but with guys like judge being a little bit quieter over the last couple days they've needed a guy like Tes to step up and provide this level of production Ryan you know how how essential is is it that Gaber is playing like this for the rest of the year I mean he's starting to heat up got to maintain it he looks really good yesterday again um couple RBI you know got on base pretty frequently that's all you can ask for him he's been a key um in the offensive Cog but at the end of the day we need the rest of the guys to step up Rizzo look good uh but like you said you know on Twitter a couple times like in these moments you need your MVP caliber guys to step up and hit you know stto judge been a little bit quieter but not really worried about them they'll ramp up they'll be fine uh but the other the rest of the team's picking them up right now and you love to see that just a full team effort even when the stars are struggling uh the supplementary compliments uh step up and actually uh you know kind of carry the load and I think that we saw a lot of good offensive production from guys that glaber over the last couple days yeah something I really like that you pointed out is that yes Soto and judge have been struggling and they've they did not win the Cardinal series and it was not because of their offense their offense did enough to win honestly they're offensive enough to sweep the Cardinals right like their worst team offensive performance was probably the game where Wells hit two home runs and won the game for them they did enough to win that second game offensively they scored six runs they came back the pitching put him in a hole I'm sorry you just can't expect the team to climb out of a six a six run deficit you just can't you can't put it on the offense I'm sorry uh they were the the pitching St allowed 14 runs against against the Cardinals on that last game you get scored seven they came all the way back down 71 to tie that baby up that is not on the New York Yankees I don't care what anyone tells me that is not on the New York Yankees the New York Yankees are not should not be expected the Yankee offense should not be expected to score eight runs in order to win a baseball game right so and and over that stretch and yesterday scored a lot of runs scored eight runs wasn't the judge show wasn't the show Soo show it was Stan coming up with some big hits it was Torres setting the tone it was r still scoring some RBI it's JZ Chisum getting the job done you know even Wells over the last couple games I don't think he has a hit over his last three games I think he's gotten on base with a couple walks so it's not even like Wells like he did on Friday is single-handedly dredging this team through those runs they're getting production one through nine and what that shows me is that this team can score runs even if they don't get a guy like stto and um judge tamash so you know I I think it's so important to talk about the fact that the New York Yankees have a more circular lineup right I know that a lot of the focus and and understandably so is on what they did in left field or what they haven't done in left field uh and I get it don't get me wrong but I think another point of emphasis is to just mention the New York Yankees are getting production offensively right now my biggest concern is what they're going to do pitching wise can they get some guys to get it rolling can they get Clark Schmidt to come back and take the ball and look like the guy he looked like before the injury can he'll look more like the picture we saw in July instead of the picture we saw you know towards the end of August and then as a pertains to gber Torres the thing I really love about what he's doing lately he's swinging the bat harder his bat speed has jumped up from 70 mph 71.5 miles hour since moving up to the leadoff spot he's trying to pull the ball he's working good counts he's not striking out he's getting on base as you mentioned the power is not there he's not crushing the baseball we're not seeing the version of gor that's going to hit 25 home runs it seems like it's not there but the confidence to go I'm going to pull it I'm going to pull the ball I'm going to rip the ball I'm going to I'm going to get my swing where I need to get to him swing a little harder he's not he's he's not hitting as many line drives I he's missing the barrel a little bit's he's missing a sweet spot excuse me but that's fine with me because I think the process at the plate once he gets comfortable swinging as hard as he's swinging I think it'll result in some more damage contact and what matters for gabber torus and he on forward is what he does again what he does from now you know in September and in October I don't really care if the season numbers are underwhelming if he does well in the postseason and even defensively I just feel like he's playing with more confidence that play Yesterday look I don't know if Cory Seager ties the game up with a home run or something but clay holes didn't look right he he didn't he looked erratic he looked wild he he he did not he didn't allow an earned run in that outing but it was an outing that I consider worse than even outings where he has allowed earned runs I think like that Philly game even that Detroit game the Little League World Series game uh and Torres he makes a great play a phenomenal stab to to win the game um that's that's the kind of stuff we have been seeing from glaber lately it's those excellent defensive plays it's the sharp crisp consistent defense I think gler for the first time in the year 2024 has found himself has said no I am a good baseball player I'm going to go out and ball out and credit to leadership you know that's you know that's again a product of the clubhouse Aaron judge has built as the captain of this team part of you know Aaron BR for everything I rip him for in terms of like you know uh uh whether it's public comments about supporting a player who I don't think is very good uh hey he's a guy who believes in his players and I'm sure it rubs off positively on a guy like labor Torres so um you know if they can get him back online which it seems they have that's such a huge part of this team cuz they just need a guy to get on base in front of them and I also want to shout out J Chism because Alex the guy's a godamn stud buffin you know he's got 10 steals already with the Yankees he's got I think eight home runs or nine home runs with the Bronx bombers this guyy has 32 steals in the season folks I I didn't know this they haven't had a guy on their team with 30 or more steals since 2014 jobi Ellsbury when he stole 39 bases this guy is dynamic and him and vulpi on the base pass they're going to cause Havoc you you can't I mean yesterday Jonah Heim is is fully aware that J J is going to steal second base J jism is staring at Rizzo while he's running to see if the guy strikes out or walks Jaheim fires a perfect throw on the money and jism still beats it and then he goes steals Third Base because he's just like that he's he plays with such confidence I think confidence is what this team needs to play with because again the talent is on the roster it's right in front of them these guys are good enough to win the division these guys are good enough to win the World Series they just have to play like it right and I feel like guys like labor getting back online guys like Cole throwing the way he's throwing you know that's what they need they just need to pull together for once just for a little bit more you just got to do it for two months you just got to figure it out for two months find a way dig deep and find a way and look they have plenty of ways to do it they have plenty of talent to get it done especially when stto and judge heat up here and these guys if they can maintain the production they've been putting together recently it is going to be a special offensive performance um they just got to get hot at the right time reinforcements on the way with Luis Hill and Clark Schmidt um as we referenced yesterday rejoining this team over the weekend hopefully um Cole will'll keep you guys updated there if there's any you know F further developments we know Ian Hamilton is undergoing some back spasms but shouldn't set him back too much uh you know at the very least but you know this team yeah they have plenty of weaknesses but sudo all the really good teams in the league you know the Dodgers or the Orioles or whoever it might be um you the Brewers are kind of surgeon right now but you know this every team has their weaknesses every team has their flaws and the truth is the Yankees have more than enough talent to win baseball games just about consistency and doing it as a collective not an individual the offense is performing like a collective right now they have the best run run differential in the game so now it's about the pitching stepping up performing well um and being consistent the starting rotation could use it they got a really good performance from Cole yesterday I know L Luke Weaver gave up two earned runs but they kind of tossed him in there out of nowhere like he I don't think he was ready uh to get thrown in there so we'll give him a break but today I think who rhon is on the mountain today if I'm not mistaken um you know that's a game yeah I mean listen we need rhon to play well like he is right now I'd say they probably give him a start in the postseason we need him to heat up dude like he might be the the difference between winning and losing a playoff game or rather winning losing a playoff series you know if he has to make two starts in a playoff series he could be the reason we win or lose um so we need him to get better now ASAP there's no time to waste my friend so you know we'll be taking a we'll be keeping a close eye on rodon his performance as always my friends make sure to like And subscribe to The Far Side podcast as always we'll catch you guys on the next onef [Music]