Cone's '98 Yankees were superb. Can '24 staff follow suit?

There are plenty of reasons why the Yankees have been one of the big early season stories in baseball, even after losing to the Marlins on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Juan Soto has been every bit the presence they expected him to be, Anthony Volpe has looked like the player the Yankees hope he will be. Giancarlo Stanton has hit some big flies, Aaron Judge has hit a couple despite a slow start, and there is top-to-bottom, righty-lefty balance again in Aaron Boone’s batting order.

But as big a reason as any for the Yankees' 10-3 start has been their starting pitching, even without reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole. In what is, of course, a very small sample, everybody behind Cole in their rotation has stepped up in his absence. This is the way the Yankees always did it in the past when they were really good. And especially when they were great.

“The best thing about what’s happened so far with the starters is that Gerrit doesn’t have to feel rushed,” David Cone said on Wednesday. “The way the guys have pitched allows him to make sure he’s really right when he comes back.”

Cone, who is the same smart and funny presence on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and with the YES Network as he once was at his locker, was the ace for the greatest Yankees team of them all, in 1998, one that won 114 in the regular season and 125 in all. He was 20-7 that year. Orlando "El Duque" Hernández, who didn’t arrive at the old Yankee Stadium until June, was 12-4 after he did. Andy Pettitte was 16-11. David Wells, who pitched a perfect game on May 17, was 18-4. Even Hideki Irabu was 13-9 as Joe Torre’s fifth starter.

We talk so much about the Core Four of Torre’s Yankees -- Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Pettitte -- but it is too often forgotten how those starters, with a combined won-loss record of 79-35 in ‘98, were as much the rock-solid foundation of that team as anything.

“Any one of us could have taken a turn as the No. 1,” Cone continued. “I took my turn, Duque took his. We all did. I actually thought that after his perfect game, Boomer [Wells] was the best pitcher in the league the rest of the way.”

Cone paused then and said, “One more thing: None of us spent any time on the injured list. Think about that in terms of what’s happening right now in the modern game.”

Cone made 31 starts for the ’98 Yankees. Pettitte made 32, Wells made 30, Irabu made 28. Hernandez ended up making 21 from June on. You put that with how loaded and how professional the Yankees' offense was in what turned out to be such a magical season, and it's not difficult to see why they were able to do what they did.

“What we proved that year is that offense and pitching, especially starting pitching, go hand in hand,” Cone said. “Good offensive support, like the Yankee bats have provided so far this season, makes a starter more comfortable, trust me on that. The message you get from the hitters is, ‘Hey, hang in there if you fall behind a few runs. Help is on the way.’”

Nobody is comparing the current Yankees rotation, absent Cole (still recovering from an elbow issue that at least did not require surgery), to the ’98 rotation. But in the short season that the Yankees have played so far, only two of their starters have allowed four runs or more -- and one was Nestor Cortes on Opening Day against the Astros, in a game in which Cortes was the one who did hang in there, did find out help was on the way in a game the Yankees finally won.

Cortes has now made three starts. His ERA is 3.50. Marcus Stroman, the loser in Wednesday night’s game to the Marlins because of an early three-run homer he allowed to Jake Burger, has a 2.12 ERA after three starts. Luis Gil is 3.00 after his first two starts. Clarke Schmidt is 4.66.

And Carlos Rodón, such a disappointment in his first season with the Yankees because of injuries and poor pitching, has a 1.72 ERA in his three starts and has very much looked like the pitcher the Yankees thought they were signing for $160 million as a free agent to be Cole’s No. 2.

“[Rodón] has been something to see, for sure,” Cone said. “He’s using more pitches this season, including his changeup. Everybody knows what he did for a long time, having his way with two pitches, fastball and slider, and being pretty much in a power mode. But so far this season, he’s showing an ability to mix and match, and that’s something that can add an essential element to a pitcher’s repertoire. And that’s mystery.”

Cone, an artist on the mound, knew all about mystery when he was an ace in ’98 on a staff of aces. Now, all this time later, the Yankees wait for their current ace to be strong again. The Yankees had very little behind Cole last season. So far this season, they’ve had plenty. So far, so good.