TAMPA, Fla. _ Gerrit Cole is fine with his new teammates expressing their feelings. The former Astro reiterated Wednesday that he did not see, hear or know anything about Houston's scheme to illegally steal and transmit signs in real time, which was proven to have happened in 2017 _ before he was there. Several Yankees have alleged, however, that it continued for the two seasons after Cole was traded there.
"I mean, I just refer back to what I said the other day. George asked me yesterday about players specifically and I'll just stick to what I said which is, everybody's entitled to their opinion. It's their own opinion. And people handle this the way they want to handle it," Cole said. "And, you know, we're all we're all grown guys around here. And, you know, I certainly am not going to tell somebody how to think, so I don't see it as an issue. I am not personally offended by it. And so hopefully that's the last question that I'll have to answer about it."
The MLB report that concluded the Astros used the "banging scheme" in 2017, before Cole was traded to Houston. Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton (and many players across baseball) have made it clear they don't believe it stopped in 2018 and continued in 2019. Those were Cole's two seasons in Houston.
Still, there seems to be no animosity for the Yankees' new ace from his teammates.
After throwing a 40-pitch live batting practice that featured Torres, Cole and the shortstop spent a long time going over the sequence of pitches. It was amicable and it was helpful to Cole.
"So Gleyber was asking why I didn't double up on the change-up because he didn't see it. But he encouraged me to try to throw it again," Cole explained. "We were just talking about approach to right on right, change-up and, you know, when I feel comfortable throwing it and then he was telling me when hitters are susceptible to swinging at that."
That was Cole's final live BP session of the spring. He told reporters his next outing will be in a Grapefruit League game on Monday. Aaron Boone said that wasn't set in stone, but likely.
"I don't have the first turn through. We haven't even locked it in stone yet. I feel pretty good saying (J.A.) Happ should be that first day and I would probably say Gerrit is on track to start the night game," Boone said. "But we haven't locked it in for sure yet. I would imagine in the next 24 hours, hopefully we'll have an idea for you."
They may be figuring out where Luis Severino slots in. Severino, who spent the first six months of the 2019 season on the injured list with a strained lat muscle, is the only starter who has yet to throw live batting practice.
With a start on Monday, Cole would be lined up to start Opening Day in Baltimore with an extra day rest. And Wednesday, he said he felt he is on track after the live BP session.
"I thought it was good," Cole said. "I missed wildly only two or three times, which is pretty good. My misses were pretty controlled for a fourth or fifth time off the mound. I thought I commanded this on both sides of the plate. I struck left handers out, on fastballs in, I got fastballs in on right handers too. Cooked the bottom of the zone a couple times with the fastball, although the hitters today were specifically calling for a lot of fastballs down, because it is kind of their profile mix. It's kind of everything and I had good results."
