Gerrit Cole has hit another snag in what has been a frustrating 2024 season.
The New York Yankees’ ace was scratched from his scheduled start on Tuesday with what the team described as body fatigue.
Cole complained of feeling run down and having trouble bouncing back from his previous start, which saw him thumped for six runs on eight hits and three home runs on July 24 against the crosstown-rival Mets at Yankee Stadium.
It was the third consecutive start that Cole threw at least 100 pitches, which is what the 33-year-old attributed to being the main aggravator of the fatigue.
“It’s still early for me,” Cole told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m six starts in and I’ve just hit my max capacity of pitches three times in a row. So it’s early.”
Cole has actually started seven games this season after being sidelined from spring training until June 19 because of an elbow injury.
Since then, he has struggled to find the sort of form that won him the American League Cy Young Award last season. In those seven starts, he is 3-2 with a bloated 5.40 ERA and 1.457 WHIP. He has 38 strikeouts in 35 innings pitched but has surrendered nine home runs in the process. Seven of those round-trippers, though, have come in two games against the Mets.
The Yankees called on Will Warren to make the spot start for Cole — who does not expect to get the ball on Wednesday, either — on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies.
