CHICAGO — Gerrit Cole will start for the Yankees on Monday against the Angels. The right-hander has been on the COVID-19 injury list since Aug. 3, but rejoined the team on Thursday in Iowa and said he is ready to go.
“I’m feeling good, ready to go and very much looking forward to it,” Cole said before the series finale Sunday against the White Sox.
Cole said he had no idea how he contracted the coronavirus. He was one of five players placed on the COVID-19 IL in this latest outbreak. Jordan Montgomery, who also went on the COVID-19 IL Aug. 3, will pitch one of the games in the Tuesday doubleheader against the Red Sox, which ironically was rescheduled because of a previous COVID-19 outbreak with the Yankees.
Cole said the team, despite the three separate outbreaks of COVID-19 this season, is dealing with the issue as best it can. The Yankees, however, are still at a loss for how it happened.
“Really outside of just going to dinner with my wife and being able to spend time with my family, which neither of those caused me COVID and they’re probably living a healthier lifestyle than what we were going through last year, just to be quite frank,” Cole said. “So it’s not like we’re going to go into grimy bars and grinding until 4 a.m. in the morning. I mean there is some awareness there. I think we just maybe keep our fingers crossed, get a few booster shots for some of the immune compromised people and hopefully we’ve overcome most of it going into playoffs with both vaccine immunity and natural immunity.”
Cole said he had mild symptoms and lost some weight during the illness, but he was able to start throwing a few days after testing positive.
“I played catch with Amy on Saturday,” Cole said of his wife. “And then I started throwing with Jordan on Sunday. So I’ve been throwing for a while.”
Gary Sanchez, who is also on the COVID-19 IL, began his minor league rehab assignment on Sunday with Double-A Somerset.
“He’ll probably play like four or five innings [Sunday] and I think he’s gonna catch and get two or three at bats,‘’ Aaron Boone said. “And then probably be with us tomorrow working out, potentially in play for us in one of the Tuesday games, but we’ll see if everything goes well today.
“We’ll see if we want to do another rehab game with them, potentially on Tuesday, but the idea would be he plays [Sunday],” the Yankees manager continued, “and then come be with us tomorrow and work out, have a full day with us and then we’ll kind of evaluate the next step.”
Anthony Rizzo, who went on the COVID-19 IL on Aug. 8, is expected to undergo cardiac testing on Monday to begin ramping up.
