AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 2, 2026

Gerrit Cole

Tropicana Field

New York Yankees

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Gerrit, we'll get started.

Q. Gerrit, you last started back on September 23rd. What have you been doing to keep yourself ready to go and locked in?

GERRIT COLE: I've been just kind of adjusting my routine with the circumstances changing, trying to get as much mound work as I can, and been able to cadence my lifts well.

Q. That last start was against the Tampa Bay Rays. What type of challenges does that lineup potentially pose?

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, I mean, complete lineup from top to bottom, with power threats, on-base percentage threats, stolen base threats, contact threats, really just a complete ball club from an offensive standpoint that puts pressure on the opposition in a number of different ways.

Q. Aaron said that they particularly like you pitching here. Is there something about pitching here that you like?

GERRIT COLE: Well, I mean, it's a nice surface overall, and the game always starts on time, which having played like five double headers this year, some years you appreciate more than others, I guess.

Overall, the environment is consistent. I think any pitcher kind of enjoys playing here in that regard. Outside of that, yeah.

Q. Gerrit, I understand you had some travel issues last night getting here. What did you and your teammates do to pass the time?

GERRIT COLE: Just hung out. Cards, conversations, ribbing each other, video games, doom scrolling.

Q. You went from Westchester to LaGuardia; is that right?

GERRIT COLE: Yes, we drove further away from Tampa and then worked our way closer back to Tampa, and then we flew to Tampa.

Q. Gerrit, you touched on this the other night. But given everything you've recovered from here, what does it mean to you to have a Game 1 start?

GERRIT COLE: It's incredibly special. And considering coming back from surgery, I mean, there's not much more I could ask for. I feel tremendously blessed. I feel that the people in the clubhouse that have contributed to the success this year deserve a lot of the credit.

It's been a team effort overall. So excited to go out and compete again, having missed last year. Excited on the heels of executing a great regular season coming off of surgery and giving ourselves a chance to be in this position, which is what our focus was at the beginning of the season.

Q. Gerrit, the extra rest that you talked about, the change in your routine, do you have a feel for can that help you? Are you stronger now at this point because you don't have as many innings because of coming back? What's your thoughts on how this 10, 11 days between starts are going to help you? There's a fine line between how do you deal with that, right?

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, I think it's an interesting point. My best strategy to deal with it was just to manage the expectations and take it day to day. You know, the focus is the third game of the Wild Card and so once that came into view, the schedule and the routine was crafted around that.

And then that didn't come to fruition, and so we had a few extra days and we just kind of moved on. I haven't really looked at it as a whole. I've just kind of been in my routine and executing what I'm supposed to be doing on any given day.

Q. Do you feel stronger now at this time of the year than you have in most postseasons because you didn't pitch 200 innings?

GERRIT COLE: I feel like that a fair point in certain regards, but I don't feel any different personally. I mean, I do feel, to a certain extent, I've been pitching all year. I feel that I've had opportunities to settle into the season and settle into the routine so that there's really nothing new approaching me at this point.

So in that regard, it's pretty much the same.

Q. With all the different ways that teams approach postseason pitching, you guys roll out starters and lean on them. Do you have an enjoyment and appreciation, a pride both individually and as a group, to sort of do it in something of a more old school way?

GERRIT COLE: I certainly do. I think individually, especially, we're trying to strive to do the best that we can and push ourselves to the limit. And as a group, I think that's our mentality, as well.

We're very, very fortunate to have this group of pitchers who have been collected on this team. It's one of the best rotations I've ever been a part of, and I've been a part of some really, really good ones.

So I think that, yeah, it's overall a blessing and very enjoyable and I am looking forward to it.

Q. Gerrit, how would you describe the job that Austin has done this season in kind of handling all the personalities, different kind of pitchers, everything that goes with that and helping you guys lead the league in ERA?

GERRIT COLE: Catcher's ERA, an often studied statistic but not very much talked about quite as much. It goes to show what big of a role Austin has played in run prevention. What speaks most to our, you know, good fortune that we have such a great player is how little, if at all, the defensive and run prevention side of the game has been affected by his offensive struggles or challenges that he's had to overcome this season.

He's been really even keel, and his defense hasn't suffered. I think when baseball players talk about pro's pros and guys really handling their business, it has a lot of respect inside the room for how Austin has gone about it and how he's really continued to get better throughout the regular season.

He's been something we've leaned on as pitchers.

Q. When Aaron was in here, he said that Rodón was very much in play for a start in each of these first three playoff games. Just what did you think of how Carlos finished out the season his last five, six, seven starts?

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, I thought Carlos really, really pitched well down the stretch. I thought coming off of the second injury, things just seemed to go much smoother for him, and he came right out of the gate much sharper. There's a lot of challenges with doing that in the regular season. I mean, it's challenging to come back from one injury, let alone having two be shut down twice and re-ramp it back up.

In that regard, him and Max have done a fantastic job. It's just really hard to be able to do. And also for Carlos and Max to find their form in that regard with such little time is a testament to how much diligence they did behind the scenes.

Q. Gerrit, on a lot of teams, you, Carlos, Schlittler, Max, would be No. 1s on a lot of teams. Because of four aces, basically, is it easy to accept whatever Booney wants for how to match it up and not let egos get in the way as far as am I going to be starting Game 1 or whatever? When you have four aces, almost look at the way it at Atlanta with Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine.

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, I think when you get to playoff baseball, you just want to be in there as much as possible. But at the same time, if you're not, you want what's best for the team, first and foremost.

So whether your job is to play or not play, you're trying to do that to the best of your ability at this point in the year. I think with all the starters having performed so well this year and giving us so many options, not only to select guys to pitch but to construct our rosters, certainly, like we did in the Wild Card, is really an advantage for us and a strength of ours and is something that's quite cool to be a part of.

We take a lot of pride in our jobs, and I think the way that we're structured right now speaks to how we take pride as a group in our job and we try to push a team forward doing the best we can and taking ourselves to the limit every time we get the ball, no matter what situation that is.

Q. Gerrit, you mentioned routine earlier. How much has your routine changed this year, post-T.J. in terms of arm maintenance, and how much of it has been trial by error on the fly trying to figure things out?

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, there's been a little bit of that for sure. The human -- we don't progress linear -- in a linear fashion, so there are times when we have to adapt.

Really, I spoke about just kind of staying curious about the process earlier in the season and I thought that really carried us a long way in terms of making some of the adaptations that you're alluding to.

And then at the same time, things have fallen back into more of a routine that has looked quite similar to years before. So it's been a journey for sure. I mean, it's going to be wild to kind of look back at it and look at the phases of how it's recovered this year. But I'd say we're most normal at this point, relative to where we started.

THE MODERATOR: Gerrit, thanks for your time.

GERRIT COLE: Thank you.