Cole on board with Hal’s desire of multiple Yank championships
After signing a contract that will cost him $324 million over the next nine year, Hal Steinbrenner made it clear that signing Gerrit Cole to the biggest contract ever given to a pitcher came with expectations — big ones.
“We need to win some World Championships,” the Yankees managing partner said Wednesday afternoon at the press conference introducing the Bombers’ newest ace. “And I believe we’re going to do that sooner rather than later, I believe we’re going to do that.”
Yes, Steinbrenner clarified, he meant the plural — more than one World Series title.
The Yankees think they took the biggest step toward doing that last week when Steinbrenner authorized an offer that had many in baseball flashing back to the days when his father, George, ran the team with a boldness and brashness that won championships. Hal Steinbrenner OK’d GM Brian Cashman quickly going into record-setting area of nine years and $324 million in the process to “force them to say yes,” trying to blow away Cole before the Angels or Dodgers could get into the neighborhood of the deal.
Wednesday, at the Stadium, Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone talked a lot about the Yankees’ family and the “special,” and competitive person that the 29-year-old Cole is. For his part, Cole talked about his dream of playing in pinstripes and even brought out the cardboard sign that he was holding in an infamous 2001 World Series photograph that said: Yankee Fan Today, Tomorrow, Forever.
Freshly shaven per the Yankees rules, Cole embraced his new role and the challenge that Steinbrenner laid down.
“I love it, I love it. It’s what you play for,” Cole said. “There were a couple years in Pittsburgh where we just weren’t good as a club. It’s just not fun. It’s not what I envisioned. You know I want to compete every year for a championship and I want to win a championship.
“I was a Yankee fan, man. And every year you have that expectation that they’re going to be competing for it,” Cole said. “It doesn’t scare me. It’s what I dreamed of.”
That’s the bottom line for both the Yankees and the pitcher.
The Bombers have not even appeared in a World Series since 2009, before legendary owner George Steinbrenner passed away and passed on this legacy franchise to his children. Cole, despite having been dominant the past two seasons, has never won a World Series. When asked about sitting in the bullpen in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series as his Astros lost, the right-hander grew visibly upset at the idea of being so close and losing.
The Yankees think Cole is the addition that will put a team that has been close the last few years over the top.
“I mean, we certainly hope so. We feel like we’ve been incredibly close now for the last few years, obviously,” Boone said. “And we’ve added one of the best players in the game to the mix. And so that’ll certainly be the goal, and that’ll be the expectation, and we welcome that expectation.”
The subtraction of Cole from the Astros, the Yankees’ main obstacle to the World Series the last three years, could have been a good enough sign for Steinbrenner’s declaration to look good.
On paper, the addition of Cole certainly seems to be the “gamechanger” that Steinbrenner and the Yankees brass talked about. He went 15-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 2018, then 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA a major league-high 326 strikeouts last season, finishing second to teammate Justin Verlander in AL Cy Young Award balloting.
Steinbrenner, however, said this was more than just the baseball operations and analytics department pushing him to open the pocketbook. Perhaps sounding a little like his notoriously brash and bold father, Steinbrenner was convinced that Cole is the right one for the Yankees now and going forward.
“I really felt, unlike other top free agents in years past, I really felt that it would be a game changer for us for a number of reasons,” Steinbrenner said. “Starting pitching, obviously can’t have enough of it. Unbelievably talented skill wise, great makeup, very tough very intelligent. Unbelievable work ethic and 29 years old. I mean, you put all those together and that’s an opportunity any given year I would pursue if they were available.”
A week before Christmas, Steinbrenner made it clear that he and the Yankees were not handing out gifts. Cole signed on to be the Yankees’ new ace and now he has to go out and earn the richest contract ever given to a pitcher.
“Probably. I know what I can control. My process. I know what I want to do. I want to do the same thing that Hal says,” Cole said. “That’s what Yankee fans want. That’s what this organization is about. So, success or failure. It’s other people’s opinions, I’m going to give him my all and post every time I can.”