Here's how 'professor' Cole helped pitching staff while injured

This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Luis Gil was attempting to explain why he has enjoyed such success on the mound this year, which began with the right-hander being sent across the street to Minor League camp, only to return when ace Gerrit Cole began to mention discomfort in his pitching elbow.

Gil nodded toward Cole’s locker at Yankee Stadium, which serves as the club’s Grand Central Terminal for any and all pitching talk.

“I have a great professor here in Cole,” Gil said through an interpreter. “He counsels me about all these kinds of pointers. Beyond the strategy of attack, there are certain things that he’s been able to teach me. I’ve been right there listening and putting it to use.”

After months of serving as an auxiliary pitching coach, Cole returned to the rotation on Wednesday, tossing four innings in the Yankees’ 7-6 loss to the Orioles. Though they represented his first pitches at the big league level this year, Cole’s fingerprints have been all over the club’s first 51 victories of the season.

“Having Cole in our back pocket is incredible,” said Yankees right-hander Marcus Stroman. “Being able to go to him in-game and between games and talk pitching, analytics, mechanics, it’s pretty special. I’m very thankful to have him there. Even between innings, we’re just having small talk on things that help immediately when I go back into the game.”

Manager Aaron Boone said that Cole took his role in the dugout seriously during his time on the injured list, similar to how he has handled his usual four days between starts. Hardly a game went by that Cole didn’t nudge Boone or the coaching staff with a thought.

“Gerrit loves this game, loves this team and loves the art of pitching,” Boone said. “He has a lot of experience doing it at a really high level. He is the first to share any nuggets of wisdom. He likes to get into those conversations with our pitching group, with individual pitchers. He has a lot to offer, and he offers it. That’s one of the intangible things that he brings to the table every day. He does that when he’s in the rotation, but certainly being removed for a time gives him a different perspective.”

That flow of information has been constant, as Cole watches how opposing pitchers attack the Yanks’ hitters, strategic moves within the game and the mechanics of the club’s hurlers.

“There are certain things that he might be seeing in a certain inning, or maybe between starts,” Gil said. “He’s helping us to get better, along with our pitching coaches. It’s just communicating and finding ways to grow.”

On a typical game day, Boone said that he has nodded and told Cole at least once, “That’s a good thought right there.” As you might imagine, Cole can also go a bit overboard; Boone recalled a moment a couple of weeks ago when Cole approached with a nugget, but recognized that it was at an inopportune moment.

“He was coming to talk to me about something and then he knew it was a point in the game where we were working through some things,” Boone said. “He’s like, ‘I’ll come back with it.’ But he will see something in the game and it will strike something with him, just a thought or a philosophy or a thought on a player. He’ll want to flesh it out a little bit. I love those conversations with him.”

It was suggested to Boone that Cole might have the makings of a good big league manager when his playing days are complete. Boone laughed.

“He’ll probably be an owner,” he said.