Yankees finally make big Gerrit Cole decision after opt out

After making Gerrit Cole wait all weekend, the Yankees finally resolved the No. 1 starter‘s future on Monday: He will stay in New York on his existing deal, according to The New York Post’s Jon Heyman.
Cole forced the Yankees’ hand on Saturday by exercising the only option included in the nine-year, $324 million contract that he signed when he was a free agent in December 2019. The original contract allowed the Yankees to nullify the opt-out by adding $36 million and one year to the original pact to make it $360 million for 10 years.
But now, Cole will remain with the Yankees for four more years at $144 million instead of five years and $180 million. The two will revisit extension discussions “later,” Heyman reported.
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All along, it was thought that it was a formality that the Yankees would add the year and lock up Cole through 2028 instead of 2029.
The delay could have been the Yankees waiting for new MRI results on Cole, who missed the first half of the 2024 season with an elbow injury that occurred during spring training.
The Yankees get fresh medicals on all free-agent signings, and while this technically isn’t one, the organization and Cole had to reach an agreement or send the right-hander to the free-agent market along with seven other stars or key contributors from their first pennant-winning team in 15 years: Right fielder Juan Soto, left fielder Alex Verdugo, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, second baseman Gleyber Torres, and relievers Tim Hill, Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle.
The Yankees had until 5 p.m. ET Monday to let Cole know of their decision.
By keeping Cole, who turned 34 in October, they’ll have him under team control for his age 34-37 seasons.
In 17 starts this season, he was 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA. In the playoffs, he pitched to a 2.17 ERA in five starts, including no-decisions in two World Series games the Yankees lost to the Dodgers, Games 1 and 5.
In the Dodgers’ clincher, Cole no-hit the Dodgers for four innings and was leading 5-0 when the Dodgers scored five unearned runs in the fifth inning, the first when he failed to cover first base on Mookie Betts’ bases-loaded, two-out groundball to first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
Pitching for the Yankees from 2020-24, Cole has a 59-28 record and 3.12 ERA in 125 starts with 915 strikeouts in 759 innings.
If the Yankees had let Cole walk, they could have tried to re-sign him as a free agent or made a play for one of two other former Cy Young winners who are on the market, right-hander Corbin Burnes or lefty Blake Snell.
Last winter, the Yankees tried and failed to sign Snell, who won a Cy Young in both leagues playing for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 and San Diego Padres in 2023.
With Snell reportedly asking for $270 million for nine years last winter, he passed on a Yankees’ five-year offer for about $125 million and wound up settling for a lot less going to the Giants on a one-year, $23.5M deal that included a $38.5M player option for 2025.
Snell chose not to vest his player option so he could try again this winter for a long-term deal. He was 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA and a no-hitter in 20 starts in 2024, his season interrupted with two stints on the injured list — adductor stain (April 24 to May 22) and groin strain (June 3 to July 9).
Burnes, who won the NL Cy Young winner in 2021, has been an All-Star the last four seasons, the first three with the Brewers and last season with the Orioles. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound righty was 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts this season.
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].