BIOGRAPHY
Gerrit Cole was born September 8, 1990, in Newport Beach, California. He is a pitcher in the MLB.
Cole played for the baseball team at Orange Lutheran High School and was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2008 MLB Draft. Cole opted not to sign, and instead attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played college baseball for the UCLA Bruins.
After his college baseball career, the Pirates made Cole the first overall selection in the 2011 MLB draft. Cole made his MLB debut in 2013 and was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Month in September 2013. He was named the NL Pitcher of the Month for April 2015, and an MLB All-Star in 2015. The Pirates traded Cole to the Astros in the 2017–18 offseason. On September 18, 2019, Cole became the 18th pitcher in major league history to strike out at least 300 batters in a season. On December 16, 2019, Cole signed a $324 million contract with the Yankees, at the time the largest contract in major league history for a pitcher.
Cole finished the 2019 season with a 20–5 record and a 0.895 WHIP. He led the American League with a 2.50 ERA and led the major leagues in strikeouts (326), strikeout percentage (39.9%), and strikeouts per nine innings (13.818). He became the first full-time starting pitcher in MLB history to average more than one and a half strikeouts per inning in a season. He finished second in voting for the 2019 Cy Young Award, behind Verlander with 159 points to Verlander's 171.
Cole made his Yankees debut as the Opening Day starting pitcher throwing 5 innings against the Washington Nationals and allowing just one hit, a home. Cole's regular-season winning streak reached 20, the third-longest in MLB history.
In his Yankees playoff debut, during Game 1 of the wild card series against the Cleveland Indians, Cole struck out 13 batters without a walk, tying Tom Seaver (1973 NLCS Game 1) and second-most in Yankees franchise history. He also became the first Major Leaguer in history to win three postseason games with 12 or more strikeouts. Only Roger Clemens (15 K's) has fanned more in a postseason start with the Yankees.
On April 12, 2021, after recording 8 strikeouts and retiring 15 batters in a row in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Cole became the Yankees pitcher with the most strikeouts in the first three starts of the season of all-time, matching David Cone (1997) with 29. Cole notched his 1,500th career strikeout, becoming the second-fastest pitcher in history to reach the milestone behind Randy Johnson. Cole finished the 2021 season with a 3.23 ERA and 243 strikeouts in 181+1⁄3 innings over 30 starts. He led the American League with 16 wins and a 5.93 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
On September 28, 2022, facing the Toronto Blue Jays, Cole recorded his 248th strikeout for the 2022 regular season, tying the New York Yankees single season strike out record set by Ron Guidry in 1978. On October 4, 2022, Cole recorded his 249th strikeout of the season against the Texas Rangers, surpassing Guidry for the franchise record, and then became the first Yankees pitcher in history to strike out 250+ batters in a single season. He made 33 starts in 2022 with an MLB-leading 257 strikeouts, a 13-8 record, a 3.50 ERA, and an AL-leading 33 home runs allowed. He also became the first right-handed pitcher in New York Yankees history to solely lead all of MLB in strikeouts in a season that year.
Cole was awarded the Cy Young following a tremendous 2023 season.
