The New York Yankees would host the Toronto Blue Jays at George M. Steinbrenner Field for their first night game of the 2025 Spring Training schedule, and Gerrit Cole took the mound for his first start of 2025. The right-hander has gone about his build-up in Spring Training a bit differently from last season as a result of an elbow injury that sidelined him for the first two months of the 2024 campaign.
Gerrit Cole didn’t just bring a sizable crowd, he also brought his A-game, delivering 3.1 innings of one-run baseball, mixing in a variety of offerings to keep Toronto hitters off-balance. Facing some hitters expected to make the Blue Jays roster including their new free agent slugger Anthony Santander, Cole had everything working in his first start.
Gerrit Cole Shines in Yankees’ First Night Game of 2025
The Yankees will need a big season from their ace if they want to get back to the World Series in 2025, and Gerrit Cole certainly looked sharp in his first test of Spring Training. It’s too early into the year to draw any conclusions from his first start, but the right-hander was able to use his new sinker and changeup aggressively tonight.
He picked up nine whiffs on 24 swings (38%) and got his fastball up to 96.1 MPH on the afternoon, keeping the velocity at around 95 MPH on both his sinker and four-seamer. Cole’s ability to expand his repertoire isn’t new; he added a cutter that helped him win the AL Cy Young Award in 2023, and he’s looking to have a similar jump in production this year.
With a refined changeup and sinker, Cole has two more pitches that can move into righties and away from lefties, making his already excellent arsenal even tougher to track. His ability to get whiffs and chases out of zone was a reflection of both excellent pitch shapes and brilliant command, looking a little ahead of schedule as the right-hander was able to throw 46 pitches in his first Spring Training. outing of the year.