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347 - Garrett Cole Is Back And Yankee Land Exhales

• Don Signorino

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Cole is back.  For the Yanks, it means so much.

The Yankees are starting to feel like themselves again, and it’s not just the standings. A three-game sweep of the Royals brings three totally different wins: a comeback capped by a 2 run 9th, a blowout where the bats finally unload, and a clean, pitcher-driven win that reminds you what this team can look like when it’s right.

I dig into the biggest reason the vibe has shifted: Gerrit Cole is back on the mound and pitching with real authority. After the fear that comes with major arm surgery and a late start to the year, there’s a quiet relief that hits when your ace takes the ball and the game immediately feels manageable. I also zoom out to the rotation as a whole, from Cam Schlittler looking like a rising star to Ryan Weathers forcing a serious conversation about who stays in the starting five when arms return, plus the watch list items for Rodón and what “good enough” needs to look like.

Then I hit the position-player picture: Ben Rice’s approach, Goldschmidt’s steady pro at-bats, and why Cody Bellinger’s defense is the kind that literally steals runs. But I don’t dodge the stuff that can sink a contender either: third base issues, the shortstop playing-time debate, Grisham’s production, the Yankees’ constant small ball failures, injury worries with Stanton and Fried, and a woeful bullpen we still don’t trust.

If you’re looking for grounded Yankees analysis with fan-level honesty, press play, then subscribe, share the show, and leave a quick review. What’s the one move you’d make right now to get this team over the top?

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Welcome And Yankees Pulse Check

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Welcome to Jersey Guide to the Yankees, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, and the Ruckers Project. And I'm your host, Donald and thank you for listening. Today I'm going

Royals Sweep In Three Styles

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to be talking about the New York Yankees who look a little bit resurgent lately. With Garrett Cole on the mound, things are much better in Yankee land. So let's go ahead and get started. So if you're a Yankee fan, you definitely have some good feelings lately. The Yanks are coming off a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals. They won three games in three different styles. All were pretty exciting, if you ask me. There was a huge comeback walk-off by Judge in the first game. There was a blowout where finally the Yankee bats woke up in game two where they scored 15 runs on 24 hits, which was just a little bit cathartic if you're a Yankee fan watching these NF bats finally all break out at once. And then in game three, yesterday, Cole looked dominant again through shutout ball through six or seven innings. Had I don't know, eight, nine, ten strikeouts. It was a lot. I don't have it in front of me. But three different kinds of wins: a big walk-off, comeback, a blowout, and then a shutout with Cole being dominant. And if you're a Yankee fan, it has to be, you know, a little bit of calming, you know, a panacea, right? A little bomb on the wound that that has been this early Yankee season. Even though the Yanks are, you know, right up there in the standings, they have a good record. You know, Yankee fans know if you're watching them closely that there are certainly holes in this lineup and things that the Yankees need to address. But recently, they've been playing really well, and it's been fun to watch the Yankees over the last week or so. And if you're a Yankee fan, I think you have to be feeling

Garrett Cole’s Return Calms Everything

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good. And I wanted to talk about Garrett Cole's contribution to all that because there is sort of a subliminal, for me anyway, calm feeling knowing that Cole is going out there and pitching every fifth day. And, you know, there was concern with the Tommy John surgery about how he would come back. And you never know, right? People have big arm surgeries, especially especially a pitcher of his age, you know, 35 years old with a massive year-long surgery in his throwing arm. You don't know what's going to happen, right? So he could be like Rodon, just take forever to actually get back to even what he was. But, you know, the Cole looks pretty damn good, right? He's had two starts now. Both were pretty good. This last one was very good. He's had a not a lot of luck, I would say, but he's had some fortune maybe early in the games. A couple big plays defensively have helped him out in both of his starts where things could have gone the other way. But in each game, he settled down and not was just was not just good, he was dominant, right, in each game. And as a Yankee fan, when you think about that, it really should give you sort of a calm feeling, knowing that every fifth day, if Cole really is back to what he was, you know, we have another dominant pitcher on our team. And I say another one because Cam Schlitzer obviously is one here already. And every now and then Freed is one, although I have less confidence in Freed in a big spot than I do in the other two. But having Cole back, and now I think he's officially back, we can say, is fantastic. And it is just another little support that this Yankee team will need, given some of the holes to drive us forward the season and then to help us in the postseason. And it might be that because he didn't pitch until mid-late May here, that he will be stronger come playoff time. Again, with Tommy John surgery, you can't say anything for sure. But obviously, having pitch less innings when you hit the playoffs has to be a strength and a help for a starting pitcher. So that is a real positive and something that I really wanted to touch on. And as a Yankee fan feeling good about things, I don't think there's anything you could feel better about than having, you know, an unbelievable star pitcher of Garrett Cole's capabilities back in pitching well on your team, a Cy Young winner, and just a tremendous, tremendous number one ace starter on the team. So that's really good.

Rotation Depth And Tough Calls

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And if you're a Yankee fan, there's other good things recently, you know, amongst some early piles of dog crap this year. Yanks recently have played pretty damn well in spots, I would say. You know, Cam Schlitler, as I touched on a minute ago, continues to look spectacular and continues to look like a rising Major League Baseball star. At this point, you know, you would think he could be the starting pitcher in the American League in the All-Star game. That that's how well he is pitching right now. He is just absolutely incredible. Every game seems, you know, right on point, and he continues to just go out there, be calm, stare down the batters, throw strikes, not walk anyone, and win games. And it happens over and over and over. I was not quite the believer, you know, last year, especially in the beginning. By the end, I was, but you know, watching him this year, it is repeatable. And it's just this calm, slow motion where the ball comes faster than you think it's gonna, right? Sometimes I think when a pitcher's motion is very slow, a same, you know, speed fastball appears differently. And I think Mariano had that effect too, where he would have this very calm, smooth wind up. Slittler has this very calm, slow, smooth wind up, and then the ball is just on you. And he is continuing to dominate. And with Cole out there as our number one and Schlitler's number two, or you flip him around, whatever you want to say, it's a pretty good start to a pretty good starting pitching lineup, which is great. I do want to mention, talking about the starting pitch, and that I think I was wrong about Ryan Weathers. In the beginning of the year, I was not sure at all, especially when watching the spring training starts, about how Weathers would fare on this team. But he has continued to go out there and prove me wrong. He has pitched very, very, very well, almost to the point where, you know, once free comes back, there's a big decision to be made about whether Warren or Weathers should actually go to the bullpen. Because in my mind, a month ago, it was absolutely Warren in the starting lineup and you know, Weathers in the bullpen. But now, I don't know. After this last month of pitching, Warren's had a few little blips, and Weathers has been very, very, very good through each of his starts. I would say he's making a very strong case to stay in the starting rotation. And it's tough. I mean, I honestly it's a toss-off for me because Warren has pitched very well this year as well. But you watch Weathers games, and you know, I have to admit I was wrong. I did not think Ryan Weathers was going to be as good as he is, and it is another excellent sign, if you're a Yankee fan, to see one aspect of our team just really, really shine, and that is the Yankees starting pitching. And you know, basically whoever we put out there on a given day, with my mind with one exception, Rodon, I am very, very confident that we're going to have a strong start and usually a pretty long start, which is great. You know, meaning five, six, seven innings at least. You know, and that's that's really good. I do think Rodon, as I mentioned, needs to be a little bit better. It's too early to really talk one way or the other about Rodon, because obviously he's come off a surgery as well. His comeback has not been nearly as strong as Cole's has been. He's been, you know, pretty wild, you know, walks a lot of people, doesn't really strike out a lot. He did have a few strikeouts last game. His last start he looked better. And then I guess we'll see over the weekend how he looks in the next one. But I do have a little concern about him. But you know, it's a that's a nit to pick at this point when you have, you know, Cam Schlittler and you have, you know, Warren, and you have Weathers, and you have Garrett Cole now coming back, being a number one ace. It's very hard. And Freed, you know, when he's on is is really good. It's hard to, you know, nitpick about Rodon, and we'll see how he does going forward.

Bats And Gloves Showing Real Life

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Other good pieces of the Yanks that have been really fun to watch lately. Rice seems like he's still hitting great. He went through somewhat of a slump there. His average was down in the 270s, it was up in the mid-350s for a while, but he is continues to hit the ball hard, hit the ball hard the other way, really, really, you know, is a fun hitter to watch. He has a great eye, really commands that strike zone well. And I think half the battle with some of these hitters is knowing what balls to swing at and what balls not to swing at. And I think he has a tremendous command of the strike zone. And he continues to slap the ball hard all over the park. And you know, he's a great addition, you know, to our to our lineup because, you know, let's face it, this lineup has a lot of holes right now. Goldschmidt continues to be really, really valuable. Um, I touched on one of the prior podcasts about what a find he was and how he continues at his age to just be a really great professional hitter all the time. Hits the ball the other way, gets big hits, you know, doesn't strike out very often, and is much better than people realize. And he continues to be an outstanding first baseman defensively as well. So Goldschmidt is a huge, huge part of this team, and and it's good to see him continuing to do well here in 2026 for the Yankees. Bellinger. What else can you say about Belly Man? Holy moly, how awesome is Bellinger. His defense is elite. He is absolutely, without question, the best left fielder in the game. Full stop. Don't even come at me with anything else. There is not a better left fielder in Major League Baseball. You take everything into account defense, offense, his arm, you know, his the plays he makes. And I don't care one bit about defensive metrics and all this other shit. Although he's probably really good in defensive metrics. It's the eye test. You watch him play anywhere he is, center field, left field, right field, first base. He's tremendous defensively, gets a good jump, sizes things up, takes the right angle, fields the ball cleanly, has a strong arm, throws to the correct base. He sort of saved the game the other day on that base hit where the runner was rounding third, and another rounder, another runner was rounding second, and he decided to throw to third, and he pegged the guy at third before the runner cross home plate. That wiped the run off the board, saved the Yanks, and then they won it later on the walk-off with Judge. So it is impressive to watch Cody Ballinger play baseball every single day. He's hitting well, he's hitting in the clutch, he shortens up the swing with two strokes, which you know 90% of the other Yankees could take a lesson from, and he plays absolute stellar defense. I mean, a tremendous addition to the team. I'm so glad that he signed for, what is it, four or five years? I love it. Cody Ballinger is exactly the kind of player this team needs more of. We can I'll take eight more of Cody Ballinger, please. So it's fun to watch him. Also been fun lately to watch Rosario continue to play well and continue to hit. It seems like every time that Boone puts him in the lineup, he does something really well and really helpful to the team. And I continue to be surprised by it. I don't know why in my mind I don't think, you know, I didn't I don't expect him to do good. I should at this point, because it's been, you know, this is second year here with the team, and he continues to do well every time he's in there. So good on him. Even Volpe lately, right, has had some really good games, and you know my absolute how I absolutely despise Volpe. But even Volpe has had some really good games, right? He's he's taken some blocks, he's gotten some hits, he's he's I don't know, I think he stole a base, he's you know, played a decent shortstop, although not nearly as well as the announcers sort of make him out to be. It's been fine. So he's actually played pretty well. What other positive judge has kind of been, I guess, up and down, but somewhat better as of late. He obviously had finally, finally a clutch hit. You know my feelings on him. Great, great, great, great, great player that continues to choke in the playoffs and you know, late in the game when it really, really matters. And the other day against the Royals, you know, again, the inks weren't losing, so it wasn't the clutches of times, but we were tied, and he had a big two-run homer, and huge, huge, huge. Gotta love that. Gotta love that. And and really just, you know, overall, while Judge need to be better, you know, you feel like he is gonna be better. You know, his average is a little bit low. He threw somebody out at the plate yesterday. Wonderful, wonderful throw at the blade. Awesome, just tremendous. But I think he's got room for improvement, but you know, he's he's had some some big games too.

AL East Math And Boone Choices

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As the Yankees sit here on May 28th, they are in second place, however. So the Rays are 34 and 19, and the Yanks are 34 and 22. So the Yankees are three games back in the loss column still, even though it's going to show a game and a half back because the Yanks have played three more games. They are three games back in the loss column, which is, you know, a little sad because honestly, the Yankees have the second best record in the American League, but also the second best record in the American League East, which puts them in second. The Yankees really have to win this division. I don't want them playing, you know, as a wild card in the playoffs. So the Blue Jays are, you know, quite a bit behind them at this point, still 27 and 29. The Orioles, right around that, and then the Red Sox are 23 and 31. So the Yanks have to pick it up a little bit. I want to see them, you know, start to put some runs together here where they start not giving away any games whatsoever. And and, you know, a lot of that will depend on how we do certain things. Obviously, we need better players to start with because there's huge holes in the lineup that I want to talk about on the other side of this. But it's also about some of these decisions and not giving away games. And, you know, things like Boone having long-term planning, you know, not putting a big reliever in in a 7-1 game when you might need them the next night or two, right? You know, if if the Yanks are up 7-1 or down 7-1, maybe don't use Bednar or you know, Cruz, maybe two of the people you can barely trust in the bullpen in that kind of game. You know, maybe just let someone else ride it out. And if you end up losing 8 or 9-1 instead of 7-1, who frigging cares, right? But just save your bullets. And the opposite, too. If you're winning by that much, don't waste your people. You know, put in Blackburn or someone else. And if the game gets close, you know, and you have to use your higher leverage people, go ahead and do it at that point. So some of this consistency, long winning streaks, things like that are dependent on some of how we use personnel, who we're putting in the lineup, that kind of thing, too. But a lot of it is we're just not good enough. And

Roster Holes Injuries And Bullpen Panic

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I want to talk about a few of the negatives right now, right? So amongst this good feeling recently, you have to always step back and look at the big picture because there's always recency bias. Ooh, the Yanks have won three in a row, we're great, look at us, blah, blah, blah, right? But again, you step back, you look at this team, and you think, okay, here we go. So McMahon still cannot throw the ball to first base accurately, and he cannot hit. So we have a gigantic hole at third base. I'm tired of hearing about his good defense because his defense has been fine, average. He continues to throw the ball poorly almost every single time he touches the ball. Why isn't Rosario playing third base all the time? How much worse could he hit than Ryan McMahon? Seriously. If you put him in Rosario against righties instead of McMahon against righties, how much worse could Rosario possibly be hitting the ball? He won't be. There's no way he's gonna be worse than 160 or 180 or whatever the hell McMahon is hitting. But, you know, maybe they think Rosario is so much worse defensively than McMahon. And I don't know, this year there isn't that much of a gap. So, you know, we have a problem with third base. Anthony Volpe, I mentioned, was playing pretty well, but again, he seems to be already re-annointed as the you know Prince of Shortstop again, somehow. Boone said before, you know, he came back that it is Caballero's job. Well, already it doesn't seem like it's Caballero's job. It's been what, two weeks? And all of a sudden, that's the entire run that Caballero had while Volpe got back, and all of a sudden it looks like it's Volpe's job again. And now Boone and the team are like, well, we're gonna find playing time for both of them. So the it's Caballero job was seems like horseshit. You know, again, as I said at the time, as I knew it was, you know, as I said, well, Boone said this, but let's actually see what happens. And what's actually happening is once again, Volpe hitting 240 or whatever it is. The team feels like he's hitting 340 and has sort of reanointed him as this immaculate starting shortstop. And here we go, you know, with the recency bias with him. You know, come back to me on July 1st and tell me how good Anthony Volpe has been, guys, because I'm telling you, three plus years of watching him play, we know what he is. He's a 218 career hitter, he makes errors left and right. Let's just see how he does. I'm really happy with how he's playing. I hate that he's been reanointed already as our shortstop because I love Caballero, I love his speed, I love his energy. I don't want to see him playing left field or something, right? I want to see him playing shortstop, not Volpe. But yeah, here we go with that. So another issue is Grisham. And I am not buying into this ridiculous Grisham is this great center fielder thing anymore. He seems slow, he takes bad roots. There was a bloop in front of him the other day that he looked like he's jogging on. He has the worst speed, the worst I think the metrics on him are actually bad and were bad last year. But I'm not really talking about metrics again, guys. And you know me, I'm I'm not into these analytics. It's the eye test. If you watch Gersham play every day, yeah, you know, every now and then he makes like a nice running catch or even maybe a half diving catch. Great, you know, and then there's like five other balls where he doesn't get to that other outfielders will get to, or he jogs and, you know, all of a sudden it's over his head, or you know, he takes a bad route to the ball, or you know, I don't buy at all that he is this great outfielder, particularly when he can't hit. And you know, his hitting has been dog shit. He's still below 200. Again, he's at a lot of ribbies, they put lipstick on a pig on TV all the time. Oh, but he still has blah, blah, blah ribbies, 24 ribbies. Well, great. So he's hitting 180 and he has 24 ribies. I mean, he's still hitting 180. He cannot be the leadoff hitter hitting 180. I'm sorry, guys. So I think Gersham is a problem. I think McMahon is a problem. I think Volpe being reanointed is a problem. The Yankees continue to fail at small ball all the time. All the time. They can never, ever, ever get a bunt down. Every other team gets a bunt down. The Yankees cannot get a bunt down if they're life dependent on it. It is amazing. Year after year after year after year, we cannot play small ball. This helps us in extra inning games, it helps us in close games, it helps when you play Tampa Bay and other teams that throw small ball at us. We continue to be poor at that. Other sort of things to be concerned about, Stanton, when is he gonna come back? I mean, he just every single year with him, he's on the IL, and every single year the response from the Yankees is yeah, you know, we don't expect it to be long, a week, two weeks, you know, it's a mild this or a mild that. And every year it's two months. If he comes back by the All-Star game at this point, I will be satisfied because it is just insanity with Stan. And this whole year, when he was running, he was running like, you know, my grandmother. Like he was the slowest possible runner in baseball, jogging at like a quarter speed that anyone would run at, and still somehow managed to hurt his legs again. It doesn't seem like he's a major league baseball player at this point. I love his bat when he's hot, I hate his bat when he's cold. You know, he's the streakiest of hitters, but he continues to be, I think, a lineup liability at this point because when he is playing, he takes up that DH spot. He can't play anywhere else. So then someone has to come out of the lineup. There's there's no one that can be there. You can't put Caballero there, you know, and have Volpe play shortstop. And God help me if Caballero ends up on the bench because Stanton is back, right? And Volpe's still playing. Things like that, where he's taken up that spot. And it makes it worse when he's not here half the year, right? Because you're paying him all this money, $30 million, whatever it is, and he doesn't play half the year every year. I think this is his eighth, ninth, tenth I. And this is his like 10th I. It's just incredible. Also, you know, Freed not being back has caused a little question mark. We do have some strong starting pitching, but you'd like to have Fred back to make it a really, really strong starting rotation. And then you'd have that big decision about Ryan Weathers or Will Warren, who's going to end up in the bullpen out of those two, which I wouldn't want to have to make that decision. I I don't think either one is a bad decision, and I'm not sure. Sure, that either one is a great decision because you could make really strong arguments for either one, and interested to see how that all plays out. But, you know, and the last, I guess, concern would be the bullpen. You know, it's absolutely dog shit. And don't be, you know, fooled by any recent success here. They've had an absolutely horrible year, and sometimes Michael Kay or other people throw these analytics that seem to try to prove, oh, they're fourth in this, they're that they suck. The Yankees' bullpen sucks dog balls. Are you kidding me? This this this pen stinks, right? So you have all the good feeling, which is great for the Yanks. And the downsides include Volpe being reanointed, McMahon not being able to throw the ball or hit, Grisham not being a good outfielder, we can't play small ball, you know, concerns with injuries with Stanton and Freed, and obviously the big, big, big bullpen issue, which is gonna plague us until we fix it somehow.

Final Takeaways And What’s Next

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So there's a lot of good stuff for the Yanks. It's fun to see them win in different ways. It's fun to see them finally break out in that middle game of the Royal series and get all those hits and runs. That's awesome. Most fun and most pleasant of all is seeing Garrett Cole out there throwing the ball well, feeling like he never left, which is, you know, just a tremendous feeling if you're a Yankee fan. You have to love that. And just the calmness and the peace that you get, knowing that he is out there every fifth day, and you're gonna feel good about the game, you know, when when he's starting. So that's a great thing. I feel that way with Schulter already, by the way. So not so much with the other starters, but there you go. The Yanks happen to be off today, and then they start on Friday night against the A's on the road in Sacramento, which is where the A's play nowadays. And then after that, after that, the Yanks take on Cleveland next week. So go Yanks. I think that's gonna do it for the podcast. Thank you for listening to Jersey Guys Sports. Please subscribe, tell your friends all about it. I'll be back soon with some more sports talk. Thanks. Have a good day.

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Don Signorino

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