Gerrit Cole is cooking up something extra spicy this season.
The New York Yankees ace righty debuted a secret new pitch in Friday’s Grapefruit League game against the Detroit Tigers. Cole threw five cutters during the game, which Bryan Hoch of MLB.com says was a secret project this spring. The cat was only let out of the bag when Statcast revealed that Cole was throwing cutters during the contest.
“I think it looks pretty good,” Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka was quoted as saying about Cole’s cutter. “Do people know about this pitch?”
If they didn’t already, they certainly do now. According to FanGraphs, Cole has never thrown the cutter in his MLB career, relying almost exclusively on a fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. On Friday, his second start of the spring as well as his apparent cutter debut, Cole gave up one earned run and struck out five in 3.1 innings of work.
The four-time All-Star Cole led the AL in wins last year and finished second in Cy Young voting. But he was still slightly less sharp than we have become accustomed to, posting his highest ERA (3.23) and WHIP (1.06) since 2017. Taking a page from the book of this former Yankees great with the cutter might be Cole’s way of getting hitters off-balance again in 2022.
Photo: 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
