Everyone will be desperate to end that lasting cruel image - him, pointing to first base, as the Yankees crumble in Game 5. After nearly two years, he will finally have a chance to move on.
Where will the Yankees be, next time Gerrit Cole pitches?
If he has Tommy John surgery, they'll cut him next week. Add 18 months, and it's August-September, 2026.
Odds are, the Yankees will still be seeking their first world championship since 2009.
By then:
1. Giancarlo Stanton will be retired, his elbows being the final straw in a physical battle he could not win. Fans will no longer blame him, instead, remembering his last great postseason, 2024. The franchise will no longer hold him up, in whispers, as the reason it cannot spend. The Yankees will still have one year left on his historically disastrous contract, and some insurance company will cover the remaining $25 million tab. There will be lawsuits, of course. But privately, everyone will be happy that he's gone.
2. Aaron Judge will remain captain, star slugger and the remaining Pride of the Yankees. He will be 34, having recently hit career HR number 400. A lock in the Hall of Fame someday. He'll have at least another kid. (Maybe Musk can deliver some fatherhood pointers.) He'll remain the face of the Yankees, ever smiling, their last tryst with greatness. He might play 1B or be a fulltime DH.
3. For better or worse, the verdicts will be in on Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe, Ben Rice and Oswaldo Cabrera. They'll either hit or disappear - via trade, or injury list, or late night buses to Scranton. Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. will still be in their prospect primes, still generating hope. Roderick Arias will either be the team's future, or he will have vanished into a Somerset sunset. The Yankees will offer a roster of young pitchers, having invested their 2024 draft with college-level arms. Maybe, they'll be rich in pitching. Wouldn't it be nice?
4. The Mets-Dodgers will be baseball's premier rivalry, following their epic 2025 NLCS postseason. The winner went on to win the world series - (maybe sweep Boston? ha ha!) - and the loser will have fortified its lineup over the winter by signing Vlad Jr. (The Yankees finished 2nd in that bidding.)
5. The Yankees will have added at least one new, aging star - near or past his sell-by date. The Padres might be done with Manny Machado, the Phillies with Kyle Schwarber. The Yankees will add someone akin to Ian Happ or Kyle Tucker (but only if they have a lousy 2025.) Bellinger and Goldschmidt will be gone, replaced by the Bellinger and Goldschmidt of 2026, whomever that is.
Feel free to fill in the blanks, based on gut instincts or insider information. Do you like Ben Hess? Go ahead, fulminate! Nobody knows the shape of the mid-2026 Yankees - or, for that matter, the country. It's scary, imagining the Babadooks that lurk out there, far more horrific than Gerrit Cole's elbow. Let's hope we're around to see it. There are no guarantees.
But today, that's what we have to ponder: Eighteen months before we likely next see our ace - that grownup lifetime Yankee fan, a kid, now and forever - on the mound.
The crowd roar will be incredible. I hope we're there to hear it. And I hope he doesn't point to first base.
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My good friend, Tommy Shirts, who reads every word posted here religiously, but never posts - and who will be at the special "Save the Yankees/Make the Yankees Great Again" strategic planning event on March 28th in the Village - all are invited - from 4 to 7PM - just texted me and said "Check out Holmes box score from yesterday, so I dutifully went to the Mets' box score and saw that old Clay pitched 3.2 innings with one hit and no runs. Can someone remind me why he's not a Yankee this year? And don't we have a few other ex-Yankees floating around who could possibly headline an all-star team? I don't know, but it seems like we have an issue with the front office not being able to evaluate talent or make good baseball decisions. CAN SOMEONE POINT OUT THAT BRIAN CASHMAN HAS NO CLOTHES???
Jim Bowden on X reports that Cole has already been told he needs TJ surgery.
With the usual 18 month recovery period, this means he will miss 2025 and 2026. The 2027 may be lost to strike or lockout, very possibly ending his career.
Please stop signing/extending players in their 30’s. It never works out.
That’s a mental image I could live without.
I perfected my anti-aluminum formula a few years ago, and I'm very close to putting the finishing touches on my wood-avoiding serum. That will make me MLB-ready. I was lucky enough to find Ray Milland's old notes inside a desk I purchased at a neighborhood tag sale. Don't entirely count me out for this year, but I'm a lock for next spring. So, fret no longer about the Yankees pitching staff. That's if I don't decide to contact the Dodgers or Mets because who wants to play for Cashman and Boone if there are other options? In any event, pencil me in for ROY and Cy Young.
In the meantime, a crackhead in search of a fix is driving us off the cliff.
It Happens Every Spring.
The movie. Not the Yankee injuries.
It only took that ritalin addict—I mean crackhead—5 weeks to drive the economy and my investments off that cliff.
The Yanks are an Aaron Judge injury away from a sub-.500 season...
Oh, ranger, I fear that sub-.500 season is already here.
2 ~ 0 ~ 2 ~ 5
(Eager and Evans)
((loosely adapted))
Now it's been ten thousand years
Yankee fans have cried a billion tears
For what, they never knew, as Cashman's reign is never through
Hey all they need is to have Fried and Rodón and Stroman step up....oh never mind you're probably right...
Auto corrected from ZAGER and EVANs (my most sincere apologies to the band)
Certainly, the Yankees have their share of problems. But the AL is so week that it's hard to imagine them finishing at or below.500
6. The Yankees will finish 2nd in the Kyle Tucker bidding war.
We're doomed.
7. We're doomed.
We all keep talking about how weak the AL East is, but here's my new motto for 2025: SOMEBODY'S GOT TO SUCK. WHY NOT US?
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