The Evil Empire is officially back.
The New York Yankees got their man in starting pitcher Gerrit Cole early Wednesday morning, sparing no expenses in the process.
Cole becomes the richest pitcher in MLB history with the second-largest free-agent contract ever signed at nine years, $324 million. Bryce Harper’s 10-year, $330 million pact signed with the Philadelphia Phillies last winter still holds the record.
Mike Trout’s massive 12-year, $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels was a contract extension, not a free-agent contract.
But the acquisition of the 29-year-old right-hander gives the Yankees the bonafide ace that they have been starving for over the past few seasons.
Cole was the runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award in 2019, going 20-5 with a sterling 2.50 ERA and a league-leading 326 strikeouts.
What was even more impressive was that Cole went the last 22 starts of the regular season without a loss, going 16-0 during that stretch with an other-worldly 1.78 ERA and 226 strikeouts in just 146.2 innings of work.
He then won his first three starts of the postseason, allowing just a single run in 22 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS and, yes, the Yankees in the ALCS.
That 19-0 stretch is something we haven’t seen in a single season since Rube Marquard started the 1912 season 19-0 for the New York Giants.
That’s how good Gerrit Cole is.
And $324 million shows just how bad the Yankees wanted — no, needed — him.
It was a direct change in philosophy from the Steinbrenner family, who were displaying saintly types of frugality (at least in the franchise’s case), which had Yankees fans ripping their hair out last winter.
With the luxury tax threshold in mind, the Yankees lost out on Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Patrick Corbin, and even Dallas Keuchel, to a lesser extent.
While Harper and Machado would have added to the Yankees’ embarrassment of offensive riches, losing out on Corbin was especially difficult considering the lack of potency from the starting rotation.
It was felt especially more when Luis Severino missed most of the year due to injury.
Still, the Yankees reeled off 103 wins with a “ragtag” group of replacements after the roster was decimated by injuries. Yet it was the starting pitching that drew most of the ire when the Yankees fell to the Cole and the Astros in the ALCS.
Plenty of Yankees fans pointed out the lack of clutch hitting in key moments, but part of it has to do with Houston’s brilliant pitching when it mattered most.
That’s what the Yankees have been missing.
That’s what they are now expecting to get with Gerrit Cole.
Once again, the Steinbrenner family has thrown caution to the wind. They have brushed luxury tax penalties aside and reset their sights on what matters most to anyone connected to Bronx Pinstripes:
Winning.
The cutthroat Yankees are back, folks. And the rest of the baseball world should be very afraid.
