Cole enjoys new atmosphere
old friend Charlie Morton. The Pirates sent Cole to Houston for Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran, Michael Feliz and minor league outfielder Jason Martin as Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, coming off a title, pressed the bet.
“All of the impressions that we got, either through scouts or networking through the industry, was that he’s a real competitor,” said Luhnow, who, as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals front office, scouted Cole at UCLA. “He wants to win badly and he wanted to win in Pittsburgh, had a couple chances to go to the playoffs but didn’t get deep enough. Really wants to be part of a winning team.”
That hadn’t happened in two decades in Pittsburgh until Cole came along. The 18th season of that stretch, 2010, was the low point. The Pirates went 57-105 and looked worse than that. But finishing with the worst record in baseball allowed the Pirates to select Cole first overall in the next draft.
There can’t have been many Pirates fans at The Ballpark in Arlington Sept. 9, 2013, but some that were there still ask Cole to sign their ticket stubs. Cole’s seven scoreless innings that night won the Pirates their 82nd game of the season, mathematically certifying the death of the losing streak. In five seasons with the Pirates, Cole contributed to three playoff teams.
“A lot of Neil Walker’s family and friends were at that game, and they always remind me of that game,” Cole said. “We were well aware of the significance of it.”
The Pirates insist they are not rebuilding and that they expect to contend. But they traded Cole, two years away from free agency, to the team that, along with the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians, is one of the favorites in the American League.
“It’s staring at you right in front of your face when you walk in the hallway and you see the photos from the Series run last year,” Cole said. “You listen to the guys talk about it, you listen to the guys talk about what they want to accomplish this year. As far as when we’re getting our work done or having a meeting in the morning, there’s no reminiscing off the field or chatting in a situation like this. Sometimes, it’s come up, but these guys are focused.”
The move brought Cole, a Newport Beach, Calif., native, closer to home. Because the Astros play the Los Angeles Angels after the AllStar break, Cole will spend more than a week at home in the middle of the summer for the first time in years. Flights to Houston from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., are $350 round-trip, so Cole expects a lot of company. Houston resident Jameson Taillon helped Cole and his wife, Amy, find a place to live near a mall with lots to do.
“In Pittsburgh, when we were out in Wexford, people would stay with us, and they were literally in our lives for like three days,” Cole said jokingly. “They don’t know what big-league life is like. We wake up at 10, we eat breakfast, then we do our morning routine and our stretching, then we go get lunch and we head to the park.”
By adding the 27-year-old right-hander, the Astros plugged 33 starts and 203 innings into their rotation. Cole stayed healthy in 2017, but allowed 31 home runs, which contributed to his career-high 4.26 ERA.
“We feel like there’s some adjustments that we can make that will make him a little bit better, but we feel the same way about Verlander and Keuchel and Lance,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “He doesn’t need to be fixed.”
Later Friday morning, Cole headed out under a cloudless blue West Palm Beach sky looking much the same as he had in Pittsburgh — smiling, hair spilling out from under his cap, No. 45 on his back. Except now that 45 was in orange and blue, and he followed Verlander in a pitchers fielding drill. A new chapter of Cole’s career had begun, and he was pretty relaxed.