New York Yankees fans feared the worst on Monday when it was revealed that ace Gerrit Cole was receiving an MRI on his elbow. Although the official results of the MRI will not be revealed for a day or two, New York received a positive update on the situation, via Andy Martino of SNY.

“Hearing the word ‘precautionary' regarding Gerrit Cole’s elbow MRI. One never knows what an MRI shows, but initial feeling is not one of extreme concern. So far, no impact on Blake Snell btw,” Martino wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Yankees fans immediately began to link Blake Snell, who remains unsigned in MLB free agency, to New York following the Cole news. However, Martino notes that Cole's injury scare has not impacted the Yankees' interest in Snell.

Gerrit Cole's injury concern

Cole has endured some trouble bouncing back from his spring training starts. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reported that manager Aaron Boone said Cole is feeling like he does after throwing 100 pitches during regular season games following 2024 spring training games. Of course, Cole isn't throwing 100 pitches in spring training outings, so that's obviously a concern.

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There is still hope that Cole will not need to miss a significant amount of time. The Yankees have aspirations of bouncing back in 2024, but they will need the reigning American League Cy Young winner leading the rotation in order to do so.

It should be noted that Cole has been one of the few pitchers in baseball over the years who still throws an immense amount of innings. In 2023, Cole led the league with 209 innings pitched. He threw over 200 innings in 2022 as well.

In other words, he is a workhorse. And for the most part, the Yankees hurler has not dealt with injury trouble during his career. With the exception of the shortened 2020 season, Cole has made at least 30 starts in each season since 2017.

There is concern regarding his status for 2024 at the moment, but the Yankees are hoping everything works out. We will continue to monitor and provide updates on Gerrit Cole's injury concern as they are made available moving forward.