Yankees Notes: Gerrit Cole’s first rehab outing, Carlos Rodon up next?

Yankees manager Aaron Boone provided some encouraging updates prior to Saturday's game against the Royals…

Gerrit Cole’s rehab outing

The Yankees’ ace was finally back on the mound in game action on Friday, tossing 4.1 innings in Double-A.

Cole expectedly showed some rust, but he allowed just three runs on as many hits while striking out three and walking one.

He stretched out to 44 pitches, 36 of which were strikes.

Boone didn’t get to sit down and watch every pitch of Cole’s outing yet, but from what he heard things went well.

“I’ve seen some of it, and I think it was good,” he said. “Velo sounds like it was 95-96, I think the fastball was mostly how he wanted, wanting to just get in the heart of the plate early and then just try to move it around a little bit.

“He was facing a fair amount of lefties and was able to mix in the changeup, which I know he wanted to do, and it was pretty good. I think the curveball was a good pitch for him too, so all in all I think another good step for him.”

Boone expects Cole will need to make several more starts before coming back.

“We’ll probably want him to get up to a certain amount and probably repeat that even once he gets up there, so nothing is imminent here -- we’ll make sure we’re disciplined and take the right amount of time," the skipper said.

“Coming off a year where not only he’s rehabbing and coming back from a major surgery, but that means no innings, so we want to put him in a position where he's not only ready to go at the start, but he’s able to carry that throughout.”

Carlos Rodon next?

The big left-hander could indeed be joining Cole in the near future.

Rodon is scheduled to throw around 55-60 pitches in a live bullpen session on Saturday afternoon, and if all goes well the next step could be beginning a rehab assignment.

While he’s expected to be back Yanks before Cole, Boone did note that he is still likely at least a few weeks away.

Rodon will require around three minor league outings.

The southpaw, of course, was closing in on a rehab assignment on the road back from elbow surgery before a hamstring issue threw a little wrench in the plans.