With Gerrit Cole Out Indefinitely, Yankees Need to Add Another Ace ASAP

The Bronx Bombers paid dearly for one year of Juan Soto. They cannot let this season slip through their fingers.

Could the man on the right replace the man on the left in the Yanks’ rotation? (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Hi friends-

When I wrote on Friday that “Scott Boras continues to wait for Godot or the second coming of Christ (or a player on the Yankees to tear his UCL!) to bring down his asking price on the top two free-agent starting pitchers still on the market” I had no idea that three days later I’d wake up to the news that Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole has… gulp… an injured elbow. I know I’m not going to beat the witch allegations here, but I swear I did not have an inside line to that man’s arm ligaments!

The Yankees began soft-launching the brutal reality that Cole might miss the whole 2024 season on Monday morning when manager Aaron Boone announced his ace would have an MRI on his pitching elbow. Fair enough. Ronald Acuña Jr. had an MRI on his knee recently out of an abundance of caution and is not scheduled to miss any time once the regular season starts.

But then the news got more ominous.