There's a controversy sweeping through Major League Baseball right now, and New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is caught up in it.
MLB is trying to crack down on pitchers using foreign substances to help increase the spin rate on their pitches. Minnesota Twins veteran Josh Donaldson recently suggested Cole was being helped by these substances, and it just so happens that Cole's pitches weren't spinning as much in his last start after four minor league players were suspended amid the crackdown. MLB is also planning on increasing the amount of checks during games.
When asked about the situation on Tuesday and whether he has ever used a certain sticky substance called Spider Tack, Cole deflected on the simple yes-or-no question.
“I don't [long pause] … I don't know … I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest,” Cole said during his videoconference with reporters before the Yankees began a three-game series at Minnesota.
He then paused again before continuing, “There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players, and I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard.
“This is important to a lot of people who love the game, including the players in this room, including fans, including teams, so if MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that's a conversation that we can have. Because ultimately we should all be pulling in the same direction on this.”
Given the simple nature of the question, the Yankees star seems to be admitting he has used Spider Tack without actually admitting he has used it.
Cole tried to blame the lower spin rates on just having bad stuff on an off day. He also responded to Donaldson's accusations and called them “undesirable” and “low-hanging fruit” before saying he'd prefer not to focus on the criticism.
This is going to be a situation to monitor. There are potentially a good amount of pitchers this crackdown would affect, and we'll see how Cole performs moving forward.
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