Yankees’ Gerrit Cole faces hitters for first time since Tommy John surgery

TAMPA — As the Yankees prepared for their first spring training game against the Orioles in Sarasota Friday morning, a different display took place at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

There, Gerrit Cole faced actual hitters for the first time since he underwent Tommy John surgery about a year ago. The spectacle drew a number of front office members into the stands and delayed the arrival of pitching coaches Matt Blake and Preston Claiborne in Sarasota.

“I thought he was sharp,” Blake said via text message. “Good life. It’s good to have the first one under your belt.”

Cole faced just three batters and threw about 20 pitches Friday. However, his fastball consistently reached 95-96 mph and peaked at 96.9 mph, a positive sign as he showed off his new overhead windup and worked from the stretch.

Cole fanned the first batter he faced, Trent Grisham, with a 95 mph high heater before getting Aaron Judge to hit a sharp grounder to second base. Jasson Domínguez then connected with Cole with a hard contact to right field that could have split the lead if there had been errant fielders.

That line aside, the judge was full of praise for Cole’s outing.

“His stuff is still electric. That’s the amazing thing after a long, grueling rehabilitation,” said the reigning MVP. “Seeing 97 already, so early in the process, only means good things for us later, that’s for sure.

“To me it looked like any other year where he was pumping 97 mph, he was working the corners, he was attacking the strike zone. It looked like the old 45 I’ve been seeing for years.

“If you told me he had just come off Tommy John and it was his first time facing live hitters, you would have never known it.”

Gerrit Cole supports Trent Grisham, his first batter of the day. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/OZhLDyJo4E

-Gary Phillips (@GaryHPillips) February 20, 2026

Once his day was over, Cole received congratulations from Judge and other encouraged teammates before taking off with his wife, Amy, and children, Caden and Everett. The three attended the live batting practice session, Cole’s most significant step in his recovery to date, and watched from behind home plate.

So far, Cole’s rehabilitation has gone as planned. He and the Yankees have left the door open for him to participate in exhibition games before the end of spring training, although Cole will first need to develop through more live BP sessions.

Last week, Cole reiterated that Tommy John’s full reconstruction comes with a 14- to 18-month timetable.

“So it really hasn’t changed,” Cole continued, meaning he could return in May — that would be on the earlier side — or June.

“We’re full of juice,” Judge said of the expected return. “Whenever he comes back, the boys in the clubhouse will be excited.”

Aaron Boone, meanwhile, stressed that the Yankees would not rush the 35-year-old, who battled elbow inflammation in 2024 before losing his entire 2025 campaign to a torn ulnar collateral ligament last spring.

When Cole returns, the Yankees are hoping for the best version of the 2023 Cy Young winner.

The team did not acquire another front-line starter over the winter, although some others have injury and workload issues, in part because they rely on Cole. But even though Tommy John surgery has a high success rate, it can come with setbacks, rustiness, and prolonged struggles. Just ask Braves starter Spencer Strider, who had a rough 2025 following the procedure.

With these warnings in mind, Cole avoided getting ahead of himself.

“I’m a confident guy,” he said last week. “I have high expectations for my execution internally, but overall, in terms of performance and expectations, I don’t really have any goals or numbers or things like that. It’s worked really well to stay day to day and execute on the task at hand, so I think the challenge is to continue to do that as things get more exciting and things start to move forward more and more.”

The judge, however, is convinced that Cole’s “best matches and best innings are still ahead of him in October of this year.”

“We are not the same without him showing up on the field every five days,” added the captain. “That’s when I got angry when people were harassing us about running the same team.

“You get a Cy Young win back like that, it’s not the same team.”