Cole’s foot already looks to be out door

HOUSTON — His team just having suffered a stunning World Series Game 7 loss to end its season, Gerrit Cole held an awkward exchange with an Astros media-relations official about speaking to the media late Wednesday night.

“I’m not employed by the team,” declared the righthander, who then relented, “I guess as a representative of myself …” and placed himself in front of a group of reporters.

It presented like an odd mix of annoyance and playfulness. Yet there’s no doubt that what comes next for Cole is very serious: The lifelong Yankees fan has put himself in a position to earn the highest free-agent contract ever for a pitcher.

“A lot of good friendships,” Cole said, following the Astros’ 6-2 defeat to the Nationals, when asked to describe his two years in Houston. “Obviously l learned a lot about pitching from my teammates. From the pitching coaches and pitching staff. I learned a lot more about the game from [manager] A.J. [Hinch]. And it was just a pleasure to play in the city of Houston.”

Was a pleasure? While Cole has publicly expressed his enjoyment here, the Astros will not be favored to retain Cole’s services. Many of his friends believe the Southern California native will return home, where both the Angels and Dodgers could go after him. The Yankees, who drafted Cole out of high school and couldn’t sign him in 2008 and failed to outbid the Astros to acquire him from the Pirates in January 2018, have the payroll flexibility to make a run at him, too. Houston’s failure to win one last game will hurt its bottom line a little, too, you figure, and that could impact its appetite to retain Cole.

If this did mark the end of Cole’s time in an Astros uniform, it will leave people wondering about what could have been if he had actually entered Game 7. He warmed up in the fifth inning yet didn’t pitch, three days after winning Game 5 with a terrific start at Nationals Park. “I wasn’t going to pitch him unless we were going to win the World Series and have a lead. He was going to help us win,” Hinchute.saidofCole.“Hewas available, and I felt it was a game that he was going to come in had we tied it or taken the lead. He was going to close the game in the ninth after I brought [Roberto] Osuna in had we kept the lead.” Asked how much he had contemplated his free agency, Cole said, “Not much.” Now it’s time to think, as a representative of himself, and ultimately act. The entire baseball world will be watching.