NEW YORK -- In a maneuver that was widely expected, Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole opted out of his contract on Saturday. The club can void the opt out by adding one year and $36 million to his existing deal, a decision that must be triggered by Sunday evening.

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand confirmed Cole’s decision. The team has not confirmed. The 34-year-old Cole has four years and $144 million remaining on a deal signed with the Bombers in December 2019.

Should the Yankees void the opt-out, Cole would remain signed in the Bronx through the 2029 season. If they do not, he would become a free agent.

The American League’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, Cole’s season debut was delayed until June due to nerve irritation and edema in the hurler’s pitching elbow. He made 17 starts in the regular season, posting an 8-5 record and 3.41 ERA, with 99 strikeouts across 95 innings. He permitted two runs or fewer in 12 of those 17 starts.

Though his workload was truncated because of the abbreviated season, Cole pitched like an ace in October, including two World Series starts against the Dodgers in which he held the eventual champions to one earned run and eight hits across 12 2/3 innings.

However, Cole’s final outing included a sequence in which he failed to cover first base on a Mookie Betts ground ball to Anthony Rizzo, a play that allowed the first of Los Angeles’ five unearned runs to score in a nightmarish inning.

“I gave it everything I had,” Cole said that night. “I'll be frustrated, like every time you have a tough loss and you use it to motivate you. But it's all out there. There's nothing a whole lot more that I could do."

Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million deal with New York before the 2020 season, the largest ever issued to a free-agent starting pitcher at the time, coming off a '19 campaign with the Astros in which he went 20-5 with an AL-leading 2.50 ERA.

A six-time All-Star, Cole has compiled a 59-28 record with a 3.12 ERA and 915 strikeouts across 759 innings with the Yankees.

Hypothetically speaking, if the Yankees chose not to void Cole’s opt-out, they could entertain pursuits of free-agent starters including right-hander Corbin Burnes, left-hander Blake Snell, left-hander Max Fried and right-hander Jack Flaherty.

The Yanks did pursue Snell this past spring before he signed with the Giants; Snell, like Cole, is represented by Scott Boras. They were also close to a deal at the Trade Deadline for Flaherty, who went instead from the Tigers to the Dodgers, reportedly in part because of the Yankees’ concerns about the hurler’s health.