Best pitcher in MLB? It’s one of these 5

The Yankees introduced Gerrit Cole as their new star on Wednesday. The Yankees finally got him with a nine-year, $324 million offer that was the biggest deal given to a starting pitcher in baseball history. They got him because they needed a true ace, one they haven’t had since CC Sabathia was the free agent they just had to have in 2008.

A true ace has more than gaudy numbers, a big arm and a bigger contract. The best definition still comes from Buck Showalter, who said this to me once:

“You know one when you see one.”

Cole officially became one for the Astros last season, and he now sits in a small First Class cabin of the game’s most elite starters, along with Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Jacob deGrom.

They’re not the only elite starters in the game -- just the five best right now. And so, here is the Hot Stove question of the day, because it’s the time of year for it, especially in light of Cole’s introduction at Yankee Stadium:

If you could pick only one of these to start one game to win the World Series, which one would you pick?

Let’s start with Cole, who has more of a postseason resume than you think. He’s 6-4 lifetime in October, with a 2.60 earned run average, with both the Pirates and Astros. In 2019, when it looked as if the Astros were on their way to their second World Series title in three years, he was tremendous against the Rays in the American League Division Series, sporting a 2-0 record in two starts with a 0.57 ERA. In his one start against his new team, the Yankees, in the AL Championship Series, he pitched seven shutout innings and won.

And in the last start he ever made for the Astros -- Game 5 of the World Series -- Cole struck out nine batters in seven innings, gave up three hits and one run to put Houston ahead three games to two going home to Minute Maid Park.

“Hope I go home with nothing left in the tank,” Cole said after that win.

There was a thought that he might pitch out of the bullpen in Game 7, but he never got the call from A.J. Hinch. He never got the chance to be a starting ace out of the ‘pen the way that Chris Sale had for the Red Sox, and David Price before him and Madison Bumgarner before them.

deGrom? He has pitched in only one October for the Mets, at least so far, and was better than you may remember. He was brilliant against the Dodgers in two National League Division Series games (13 innings pitched, two runs allowed). He beat the Cubs in the NL Championship Series when the Mets were on their way to a sweep. And this was all before deGrom turned into Cy Young deGrom during the past two seasons. Though the Royals got to him in that 2015 World Series, in those other three postseason starts, deGrom struck out 27 batters in 20 innings and gave up just four earned runs.

Of course, Verlander has been a horse in October, even if he has somehow never secured a victory in a World Series game. His defining moment for the Astros came in Game 6 of the 2017 ALCS, with the Astros down three games to two and facing elimination. It was another time when the Yankees saw what it was like to have a true ace pitching for the other side, as Verlander went seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Here it is -- see if you can hit.

Finally, though, you come to the two starters who just pitched the Nationals to one of the most unforgettable World Series victories in history, because of all the elimination games they faced, starting with their come-from-behind victory against the Brewers in the NL Wild Card Game. Strasburg was everything we thought he would be as a kid -- and more -- becoming the first postseason pitcher in history to go 5-0. And when his team was facing elimination in Game 6 of the Series, on the road, he pitched into the ninth inning and had the game of his life.

But the guy who got the ball the next night in Game 7, pitching for the championship, was the guy I’d pick over everybody else to do it again, and that’s Scherzer.

Yes, Scherzer went 3-0 to Strasburg’s 5-0 in the 2019 postseason. He had to be scratched from a Game 5 start in the Series because of spasms in his neck and back. And I thought Strasburg had his best stuff going more often than Scherzer did in October.

But, for me, Scherzer’s greatness showed through when he didn’t have his best stuff, when the pitcher Bob Costas calls “crazy competitive” was behind in the Wild Card Game and then behind in Game 7 of the Series, on a night when the Astros’ Zack Greinke was the one who had better stuff -- at least until he didn’t.

Houston had Scherzer on the ropes again and again through the first five innings of that game, as he gave up seven hits and four walks and was throwing 103 pitches. But they could not put him away. He didn’t just show you his arm that night. It’s always about more than arm with true aces, especially in moments like these. You couldn’t lose giving the ball to any of them. The Yankees have clearly declared who they want to have the ball with everything on the line. I’d still give it to Max. What about you?