00:00Joel Sherman for Three Things, still in Tampa.
00:04Hopefully I could bring a little warmth to some folks right now.
00:08I know things are cold back in the Northeast, so I won't even tell you.
00:12I've got a couple of layers on here.
00:14It's cold in Florida as well, but better than where most of my friends are.
00:19Everyone stay safe.
00:21This was an interesting weekend for Yankee starting pitching.
00:26So why don't I have three thoughts on that,
00:29starting with the guy who's probably most interesting right now,
00:32though he isn't going to pitch probably for at least the first 40-ish games of the season at best,
00:37and that's Garrett Cole, who on Friday,
00:42he threw a live batting practice for the first time since he had Tommy John surgery on March 11th.
00:48We're getting closer and closer to the one-year date of that.
00:52He was 94 to 97 pretty consistently.
00:55It was much harder than anyone anticipated, probably including himself.
00:59He said he wanted performance that day.
01:02That was not a pure rehab day for him.
01:05He was facing Jason Dominguez, Trent Grisham, and Aaron Judge,
01:08and he wanted to pitch to them.
01:10He threw 20 pitches.
01:11It was all fastballs.
01:12He's not up to breaking balls yet.
01:15And it was a positive day with a long, long way to go.
01:20And why don't we discuss the long way to go and the long way behind him?
01:22I talked to Cole on Saturday morning.
01:25It was just me and him.
01:26And I've got to tell you, anybody who's watched the Yankees in his career knows this is a guy who
01:32loves everything about the art of pitching.
01:34And he talked with incredible, I thought, passion and sincerity about how much he missed the game last year
01:40and what that means to him right now along the way.
01:44And he used the word horizon.
01:45I can now see the horizon of coming back.
01:48And yet he's still saying, I will not rush.
01:51The science is the science.
01:52And 14 to 18 months is the schedule.
01:5814 months is May 11th.
02:0018 months is September 11th.
02:02You're all baseball fans.
02:03You know what the difference between those two numbers means.
02:05It means playing about three quarters of the season or about a quarter of the season, less than that even,
02:12when he comes back or someplace in between there.
02:15Everything looks great today.
02:17But these things take time.
02:19They're hoping he's going to pitch in a Grapefruit League game before this is all said and done,
02:24which would then put him in place to maybe go to a minor league team at some point in April
02:31and begin to arc towards getting back in May.
02:34I continue to say May 24th.
02:36Keep an eye on that date.
02:38If the Yankees needed the roster spot, he could be put on the 60-day IL.
02:42That opens a 40-man roster spot.
02:45And the first day of eligibility off the 60-day IL is May 24th.
02:50So I would think, if I were just guessing, that would probably be the earliest he returns.
02:55But so far, so good for Garrett Cole.
03:00And you know what that means.
03:01It was interesting.
03:02I said to Max Freed, who was the other pitcher that day,
03:06he pitched an inning, Cole pitched an inning, Freed pitched an inning.
03:09And Freed stood on the top step and watched Cole.
03:11And I said, what would it mean to have Garrett Cole back?
03:15And he kind of chuckled and he just said, my whole answer is he's Garrett Cole.
03:20So, you know, there are questions how guys come back from Tommy John.
03:24There's usually some command issues.
03:27But if he could come back and pitch a lot of the season and be a lot of Garrett Cole,
03:3180-90% of Garrett Cole, it's a huge boost for this Yankee rotation
03:36as far as quality and quantity of depth and talent.
03:41Number two, why don't we talk about Luis Heal, who pitched yesterday on Sunday,
03:48two and two-thirds innings against the Mets.
03:50The Mets brought over the top three hitters in their lineup,
03:53our guys who will make their team.
03:55But pretty much it was not, you know, their A lineup coming across the state.
04:00Two and two-thirds innings.
04:02He gave up a home run to Jared Young.
04:06If you want to be hopeful about Luis Heal,
04:09and we'll talk about what hopeful means in a second, but Luis Heal.
04:12Last year, there were two problems as he came back from a lat injury
04:17that cost him the first four-ish months of the season,
04:19which was he never was consistent with his fastball as he was the year before,
04:24and he never really got control of his control, a command.
04:28Yesterday, he threw three-quarters of his pitches for strikes.
04:32He didn't walk anybody.
04:34He struck out four.
04:35Again, not a big-time Mets lineup.
04:38Third week of February, keeping it in line.
04:40His average fastball was like 94.6 or 7 in that range,
04:45which is two miles an hour short of where he was at the beginning of the 2024 season.
04:51Both he and the Yankees feel like he's on a progression towards then.
04:55Again, third week of February.
04:56The Yankees thought he had a great offseason where he was really locked in
05:02and then were actually a little worried.
05:04His first bullpen here was not very good from what I understood.
05:07It was like 91-92, and it wasn't there.
05:10But they feel like this fastball has been ticking up for him.
05:13And again, you know what this means.
05:15Garrett Cole's first brush with what would ultimately be a need for Tommy John surgery
05:20was he had an elbow injury and missed the first two-and-a-half months of the 2024 season.
05:27Luis Gil made the rotation because of that, and then for two-and-a-half months pitched like Garrett Cole.
05:32If there was a two-and-a-half-month Cy Young, he would have been in the conversation for it,
05:36and Cole had won the AL Cy Young the year before.
05:40That's what pushed him towards winning the AL Rookie of the Year in 2024.
05:44Do the Yankees get that guy back?
05:48Because if they do, again, we're starting to talk not just about some level of quantity,
05:53which is valuable in the long season, but quality at the highest end, which leads to number three.
06:01The Yankees do have a shot, and it is a shot.
06:04It's no sure thing of having a very high-end rotation.
06:09But things do have to fall in line.
06:11Carlos Rodon has not yet, from his, he had the least, there's three elbow surgeries the Yankees are concerned with.
06:18He had the least serious of them.
06:20Both Cole and Clark Schmidt had Tommy John surgery.
06:24Rodon had a cleanup.
06:25Give Rodon credit.
06:27He kept it quiet, but his teammates told me over the offseason,
06:32and it was verified here in spring training,
06:34that he couldn't straighten out his arm at the end of last year,
06:37and he pitched, you know, into that Toronto series that the Yankees lost.
06:42And I keep, always feel like it's why I think Cole is so important and Freed are so important.
06:47I think the less you ask of Rodon to be a top-of-the-rotation guy, the more it liberates
06:53him.
06:53So if it's Freed and Cole, and then like some combination of Hill, Weathers, and Rodon,
06:59and let's talk about those guys in a bit, but like that could be very high-end stuff across the
07:04board,
07:05asking less of Rodon.
07:06They're hoping they get Rodon back late April, early May.
07:11Right now they have seven kind of veteran guys,
07:14if you consider guys like Schlittler and Warren veterans, pushing for rotation spots.
07:22I talked to Matt Blake on Sunday.
07:25He indicated with full health, and there's a long way from here to there,
07:29that Ryan Yarborough and Paul Blackburn, who are being built up and to be starters,
07:33would be folded into the bullpen as kind of, especially early in the season,
07:37long men who would help bridge some shorter starts in April,
07:41and then they'd kind of figure it out on the run as Rodon and Cole come back.
07:46Now, is Cam Schlittler going to repeat last year for a full season?
07:51That was quite a cameo for a third of the season and in the postseason.
07:55He was kind of everything you'd want to be in a young starter.
07:59He kind of, to some degree, was what Hill was that first half of 2024.
08:05Can he do it for a full season?
08:07Will Warren is coming back.
08:09He was incredibly valuable in durability last year by making starts
08:13when there was kind of like not a next guy to go to for a lot of the years.
08:16He made 33 starts.
08:19Can he figure out?
08:20He didn't pitch well against the best teams.
08:21He still hasn't figured out completely how to deal with lefties,
08:25and he hasn't completely figured out how to, you know,
08:27keep a runners-on situation from blowing up into a 3-4-5 run inning
08:32instead of a 1- or 2-run inning, and you keep your team in a game.
08:35So there's a graduation there that has to come.
08:38And Ryan Weathers is an interesting, you know, piece to sculpt.
08:43There were a lot of teams after him because of the high-end talent.
08:47Can that be – can the Yankees get that and keep him healthy?
08:52That would give them some interesting stuff as it goes along.
08:55If and when they get Rodon and Cole back, they'll have a lot of good choices.
08:59Somebody will probably have to go to the minor leagues.
09:02Somebody or two will probably have to go to the minor leagues or the bullpen
09:05who's a pretty good starting pitcher.
09:07Now, you don't usually get full health.
09:10You're lucky if you kind of keep five.
09:12You're really like going over and over again.
09:14We'll see that.
09:15And then the one last thing I will add is Carlos O'Garange
09:19and Elmer Rodriguez are close to the majors.
09:24The Yankees have done well with starting pitchers the last few years.
09:28Hill, Warren, and Schlittler getting them to the majors in good order.
09:32Those two are sitting there,
09:33and Matt Blake thought this was the best combination of quality and quantity he's had
09:37in his seven years with the Yankees as far as rotation guys are concerned.
09:42That is always a – you do this if you're a Yankee fan or you're employed by the Yankees
09:47because you think you have a lot and then you have an injury or three or four
09:52and then your depth goes away.
09:54But sitting here three weeks into February, not even March,
09:57the Yankees feel like they could potentially build a really, really strong,
10:02deep, with reserve starting rotation.
10:05Will they get there?
10:06It will be a big story this season.
10:09Listen, please.
10:09We'll be watching it soon.
10:10I'll see you next time.
10:11I'll see you next time.
10:11Take care.
10:11Now –
10:12You're welcome.
10:12It's kind of thinking of where you are,
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