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Evan & Tiki

Yankees Rotation Looks Historic As Gerrit Cole Dominates

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber react to Gerrit Cole’s dominant return from Tommy John surgery and what it means for a Yankees rotation that suddenly looks like one of the best in franchise history. Even with injuries and moving pieces, the Yankees’ starting pitching has been so strong that it changes the expectations for the entire season. The guys discuss Cole’s intensity, Cam Schlittler’s emergence, Max Fried’s eventual return and why this may be the Yankees’ best chance to cash in on a special rotation. They also explain why Brian Cashman has to be aggressive at the trade deadline, because with Cole in his mid thirties and coming off surgery, this championship window may not stay open forever.

Transcript

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0:00.0

We'll get to your calls on that coming up 888808-101-19.

0:03.1

Now, from the baseball last night, if you're a New York Yankee fan right now, even with Max Fried on the injured list, and even with the fact that the Kansas City Royals are a minor league team who bow down to you when you see them. How many is that in a row they lost? 14 in a row, including the post season. 14 in a row. Forget about the individual game for a second. And just put that aside.

0:22.7

What has to get you moist, as I like to say. the postseason. Yeah, 14 or a row. Forget about the individual game for a second. Just put that

0:21.6

aside. What has to get you moist, as I like to say, is Garrett Cole. Oh, man. The man is off

0:28.0

Tommy John surgery. He pitched against the race, too. So let's not just act like, ah, it's the

0:32.9

Royals. It doesn't count. He has not given up an earned run yet this season. He has looked incredibly dominant.

0:38.9

His pitch count has been efficient.

0:40.4

He could have gone deeper in a last night's game.

0:42.8

And so between Garrett Cole looking like Gary Cole and Cam Schlittler being Cam Schlittler,

0:48.0

and the idea that Max Fried will be back relatively soon.

0:50.8

And that doesn't even include Carlos Rodan and Will Warren and the rest of this

0:56.0

rotation. Do we see Clark Schmidt in August in September? Throw him in there too. I almost forgot

1:00.6

about Clark Schmidt. I'm just going to give you the stats. Right now the Yankees have one of the

1:05.2

greatest pitching staffs in the history of their franchise. Now that sounds like hyperbole. It's not.

1:09.4

It's statistically. Like that's the kind of start they're off to from their rotation. Their starting pitching staff has a sub 3ER. That has not happened in the last 50 years in Yankee history. That's how good they've been. And so, we haven't even seen the best of it. No. We haven't seen... Because Coles made two starts. Right. And we haven't seen Freed and Coal together yet in the starting rotation. Ever. Until Freed comes off the I.O., which will happen at some point. But you're right. You can't help but be just enamored with how well this pitching rotation is, and it's going to be.

1:44.5

The other thing, and we saw this with Geread Cole with Volpe,

1:48.8

with the tag on Garcia, he's just a badass.

1:52.4

You see it when he pitches.

1:55.9

He is so intently focused on dominating that you can't get into his head. And so it's, I don't know,

2:05.8

it's, it's, it's, I like watching his mannerisms when he's dominating. He is a guy. He's

2:12.3

one of those guys, but there is a warning sign I want to give you. And this is not a negative.

2:16.5

This is again, just, I got to give you the reality. So on one half of the reality, this pitching staff is as good as we've ever seen the Yankees have. I mean, historically, that's how good this rotation is. But here's the bad news because I went through this last night because I was curious. I was curious, how many guys who are 34 years old, now 35, have Tommy John surgery? And how do they do? And the results are not great. Like Justin Verlander won a Cy Young off Tommy John surgery, and then he was Dunzo. Now, granted, he was much older. He was five years older. Janie Moyer had it at 47. Jacob de Grom had it a couple of years ago, John Smoltz had it. He mean 37? 37. 37. What did I say? You said 47. 47? No, no, Jamie Moyer was 47. Really? I'm not joking. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one was real. What? Yeah. I'm not kidding about that one. What? Yeah. No, look it up. I'm not making that part up. So the track record of older guys having Tommy John surgery

...

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