Gerrit Cole’s injury has the Yankees on alert: Who could be his replacement?

The New York Yankees rotation is one of the best in all of Major League Baseball and much work has been done within the team to ensure that it arrives at the start of the season with all its pitchers in top condition. However, nothing is perfect and the casualties have already begun to occur after the intense work of spring training

A few days ago it was the American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil who went down with a high-grade lat strain that will sideline him until June, and now it appears that star pitcher Gerrit Cole is compromised by new discomfort in his right elbow, so he is already being tested to determine the severity of the problem.

Gerrit Cole is dealing with a problem

This deja vu is very worrying because last year Cole missed a large part of the season by making only 17 starts after suffering from elbow nerve inflammation and edema, so this offseason’s work was focused on keeping his arm moving earlier than the past two seasons, to strengthen it.

Everything seemed to be fine and Cole made his second start of the spring last Thursday against the Minnesota Twins, after which he said he was satisfied with the velocity of his fastball, but not with his control.

Who would ‘fill the gap’?

Given the circumstances, the Yankees have to rely on their bullpen depth and it seems that the eventual replacement for Cole if he does not recover in time for Opening Day would be young right-handed pitcher Will Warren, who joins Marcus Stroman, Gil’s replacement, in a rotation that is beginning to suffer with its starters and could turn to minor league pitchers such as Carlos Carrasco and Allan Winans, who were in camp in Tampa as non-roster invitees.

There is no consolation if Cole’s injury is confirmed, even though the Yankees have injury insurance in the pitcher’s contract, who opted out of his contract with the Yankees after last year’s World Series hoping for a lucrative negotiation, which did not come, so he stayed with the same conditions he had previously, a four-year, $144 million contract.