Gerrit Cole to Start Friday as Yankees Activate Ace
gerrit cole is back on the 15-day injured list radar for Friday. Aaron Boone said the Yankees will activate the right-hander and start him that night, ending a 2025 season wait that kept him out while he recovered from Tommy John surgery.
Friday will be Cole’s first big league start since 2024. The move gives New York a proven arm with a 3.18 earned run average across almost 2,000 big league innings, and it comes as the club keeps sorting through a rotation that has already shifted around injuries.
Cole’s Return After Tommy John Surgery
Cole spent the season rehabbing after March 2025 Tommy John surgery, and the Yankees stretched him back out across six rehab outings. He went at least 4 1/3 innings in all six, posted a 4.66 ERA, and allowed three earned runs combined over his two most recent rehab games while throwing 10 1/3 innings.
That workload is what allowed the Yankees to move him back into the rotation now instead of waiting for one more rehab start. For a pitcher who logged at least 116 innings in every full season from 2013 to 2023 and hit the 200-inning mark six times in that stretch, the team is betting the ramp-up was enough to make the jump.
Yankees Rotation Around Cole
The Yankees have already had to adjust again after Max Fried went on the injured list with a bone bruise in his left elbow. Fried had given New York a 2.86 ERA over 32 starts last year, and the club had not been expecting that injury to speed Cole’s timeline.
For now, Cole is the latest high-end arm to re-enter a staff that has not stayed intact for long. He began 2024 on the injured list because of elbow discomfort, returned to post a 3.41 ERA over 95 innings, then turned in a 2.17 ERA in five postseason starts as the Yankees reached the World Series.
Boone’s Staff Choices
New York has still gotten useful work from Will Warren, Cam Schlittler and Ryan Weathers, all of whom have ERAs under 3.60. Carlos Rodón has a 5.63 ERA in two starts after opening the season on the injured list while recovering from elbow surgery, and Clarke Schmidt is working back from Tommy John surgery performed in July.
Cole’s return gives Boone a front-line starter again, but it also sharpens the question of how long the Yankees can keep piecing together innings around injuries. They went 94-68 last year, then dropped their ALDS matchup with the Blue Jays, and Friday puts one of their most dependable arms back at the center of the plan.
