Can Yanks survive without Cole? History says they can ... and more

Gerrit Cole is perhaps as important to his club as any player in the game, and that includes position players along with pitchers. The Yankees already have Aaron Judge, who hit 62 home runs and was MVP in the American League the season before last. They brought in Juan Soto to be the difference maker this season, to help the Yankees make it back to the World Series for the first time in 15 years. But you can argue the most pivotal piece is Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner -- and the best starter in the sport in 2023 -- getting the ball every fifth day.

Now there is something going on with Cole’s right elbow, after a career when he has mostly been blessed with good health, and a four-year Yankee career that has seen him pitch more innings than anybody else in baseball in that span. It is being reported that Cole will miss at least a month, which seems to be the most optimistic prognosis for him. Or two months. Or maybe more.

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No one is sure at this point, even after the MRI exam that Cole got in Florida. It is why he will now be seen in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, one of the pre-eminent orthopedic surgeons in the country. Maybe after that, a month or even two on the sidelines will be a realistic and best-case scenario for Cole. But this is a pitcher’s elbow. By now even the most optimistic fans in this world expect the worst, even while hoping for the best.

Cole could be back on the mound in May or June if he is indeed given a clean bill of health. Or the news could get worse from here, because it so often does even with star pitchers. Of course the doomsday scenario for him and for the Yankees – we’re not there yet and might not ever get there – would be surgery, even as we’re being told that the first MRI revealed no ligament tear in Cole’s elbow.

But the more you think about it, and the more you look back over history – just because history always connects everything in baseball – there are ways for the Yankees to believe that they might be able to survive without Cole. And even triumph.

The best example is the most recent, which means the Rangers, last year’s World Series champions. Remember: They signed Jacob deGrom as a free agent to help pitch them to a parade, then got six starts out of him before his season ended because of a bad right elbow, on his way to the second Tommy John surgery of his career.

At the 2023 Trade Deadline, Chris Young --- who runs baseball operations for the Rangers --- made a deal for Max Scherzer as a way to replace deGrom down the stretch in the regular season, and then in October if the Rangers made it that far, which they sure did. They got eight starts out of Scherzer, who also got hurt. Max did show up for the postseason, pitching twice against the Astros in the American League Championship Series, then only gave them a three-inning start in the World Series against the Diamondbacks before he ran out of gas.

Even Nathan Eovaldi, who became the pitching star of October for the Rangers, was hurt during the regular season and limited to 25 starts.

The Rangers survived it all. Lost their ace, deGrom, early. Watched Scherzer mostly hanging on the ropes at the end. Still ended up being the last team standing.

The Yankees will need some of their internal options to step up just like the Rangers did, whether it’s Marcus Stroman, their big free-agent signing this past winter; Carlos Rodón, their big signing from the winter before; or Nestor Cortes, their breakout All-Star from 2022.

And deGrom isn’t the only ace in recent memory who saw his team win a title without him.

Back in 2011, the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright did the same. Wainwright felt something wrong with his right elbow pitching batting practice that year, on Feb. 21. Tests were run. Damage was discovered in his ulnar collateral ligament. Two weeks later, he underwent Tommy John surgery.

You know how things worked out for the Cardinals that year. They kept the Rangers from winning their first World Series by winning it all themselves, all without the guy known as Waino across a long and distinguished Cardinals career.

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Five years before that, Wainwright finished off the 2006 National League Championship Series by striking out Carlos Beltrán of the Mets -- looking -- in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7. That ’06 Cardinals team also went on to win it all. They couldn’t have done it without Wainwright, who pitched nine times in relief that postseason without giving up a run. Five years later, the Cardinals showed they could win without him.

There is no way of knowing at this point how bad things are with Cole’s elbow, because the story is still developing. Or how long he will be out. My first reaction was that the Yankees can’t win without him. History says they can.