What rust?
Yankees catcher Austin Wells didn’t see any signs of it as he caught Gerrit Cole’s first bullpen session in spring training on Friday morning.
Cole consistently sat in the mid-90s with his fastball, touching up to 96 mph.
“He looks great, he looks sharp, he looks like Gerrit Cole,” Wells told SNY’s Niki Lattarulo. “It was refreshing to see. That was my first time catching him since surgery -- I think he’s in full-season form and he could get outs right now if he needed to.”
Certainly an encouraging sign with Cole nearly a year removed from Tommy John surgery.
The right-hander's exact timeline for a return is still a bit of an unknown at this point, but the Yanks are hoping to be able to get him back headlining their starting rotation by May or June.
“The target is always between 14-18 months, that hasn’t changed,” Cole said Friday.
New York will obviously err on the side of caution as their ace progresses, though, as they can't afford to have him miss more time than expected with their pitching staff already banged up.
Along with Cole, Carlos Rodon is expected to miss the first few weeks of the season, Clarke Schmidt is expected to be sidelined until some point in the second half, and now Cam Schlittler is dealing with back inflammation.
If Schlittler doesn't have to miss time, he'll help hold down the fort alongside Max Fried, Luis Gil, Will Warren, and the newly acquired Ryan Weathers until Cole and the others are ready to return.