Rival pitcher calls out Gerrit Cole as cheater
Feb 14, 2020; Tampa, Florida, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) throws during a spring training workout at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
The rivalry between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays is heating up.
Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah was a guest on Serge Ibaka’s “How hungry are you?” cooking show. Manoah’s episode was published on Monday, and his answer to one question is going viral.
Ibaka asked Manoah “who is the worst cheater in baseball history?”
Manoah said Gerrit Cole.
“He cheated. He used a lot of sticky stuff to make his pitches better, and he kind of got called out on it,” Manoah said of Cole.
In 2021, former Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson called out Cole over suspicion the pitcher was cheating by using illegal foreign substances on the ball. Donaldson later became teammates with Cole on the Yankees. Cole effectively admitted to using the substances. At the time, MLB was taking a lax approach to pitchers using the substances.
Now there are foreign substance checks by umpires, so pitchers are supposed to be more careful about what they’re doing. Even the new environment of substance checks for pitchers hasn’t slowed down Cole. He went 13-8 with a 3.50 ERA in 2022 with a league-high 257 strikeouts.
Whether it’s a cheating matter or not, Manoah has some beef with Cole. The two also had an incident in August.
