SWB RAILRIDERS: Yankees’ Cole to make rehab start Saturday at PNC Field

Gerrit Cole’s next stop in his rehabilitation assignment is PNC Field in Moosic.

The New York Yankees ace and 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner is expected to pitch for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders against the Syracuse Mets on Saturday at 6:05 p.m.

Cole has made five rehab starts — three with Double-A Somerset, two with High Single-A Hudson Valley — as he works his way back from reconstructive elbow surgery last March. In 23.2 innings, he has allowed 15 runs and 22 hits with 22 strikeouts and just two walks.

Each outing, Cole has increased his pitch count. He threw 44 pitches in his first start April 17 for Somerset, then 52 pitches April 23 for Hudson Valley, 60 pitches for Somerset on April 29 and 69 pitches May 5 for Hudson Valley. His most recent outing was Sunday for Somerset at Reading and he threw 77 pitches (51 strikes) in five innings, allowing three runs (two earned) and four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.

It is expected that Cole will throw around 80 pitches Saturday. Yankees manager Aaron Boone has told reporters in New York he thinks Cole likely needs one or two more rehab starts before returning to the majors.

Cole has not pitched in the majors since Oct. 30, 2024, in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. He missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

In 12 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros and the Yankees, he has a career record of 153-80 with a 3.18 earned-runs average. He has started 317 games and has 2,251 career strikeouts in 1954 innings. He is the third-fastest pitcher in MLB history to reach 2,000 strikeouts, doing it in 278 games. Only Randy Johnson (262 games) and Clayton Kershaw (277) did it faster.