No clarity on Gerrit Cole yet, but ‘difficult to envision’ him starting Opening Day

It seems like Gerrit Cole Watch will continue for at least another day.

The reigning AL Cy Young winner underwent an MRI on his pitching elbow on Monday after reporting more difficulty than usual recovering between outings — particularly for this early in the season. Yankees manager Aaron Boone met with the media again on Tuesday, but he didn’t have anything concrete to share about the status of his ace. The results of Cole’s MRI have presumably come in, but the Yankees are determined to seek out every possible opinion and have yet to formulate a diagnosis or timetable for return. Per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, Boone said it’s “still probably going to be a couple of days until everybody weighs in on it.”

While it remains to be seen how long Cole will be sidelined, being shut down for this long in the middle of his spring throwing program obviously throws a wrench into his ability to get ready for the regular season. Given that, Boone said that it’s hard to imagine Cole being ready by Opening Day no matter what the diagnosis on his elbow is, adding that the team has “started to have those conversations” about who might get the ball on March 28 if Cole is unable to go.

Obviously Yankees fans everywhere were hoping to have some clarity on Cole by now, given that he’s probably the single most important player on a team hell-bent on getting back into title contention in 2024. But this update from Boone doesn’t really tell us much of anything. It probably rules out anything too major — it doesn’t seem like the team would handle a tear this way — but Cole could have anything from an elbow strain to tendonitis to just general spring soreness. It makes sense that the team would want as many experts as possible to weigh in before charting a course here. It’s still March 12; now is the time to get this decision right, and ensure that Cole is healthy for as much of the season as possible.