Yanks ace Cole set for season debut Wednesday
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
The wait is over: Gerrit Cole will make his season debut for the New York Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, on the injured list to start the season with nerve irritation and edema in his right elbow, will take the mound at Yankee Stadium after three rehab starts between Double-A and Triple-A.
Cole was dominant in his last outing Friday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, giving up one unearned run on two hits with 10 strikeouts and no walks over 4⅓ innings. In all, Cole allowed two runs (one earned) with 19 strikeouts to zero walks across 12⅓ innings in the three outings.
The Yankees had listed their Wednesday starter as “TBA” through Sunday. Manager Aaron Boone said the club was choosing between Cole and Cody Poteet, noting the team was not obligated to rush into a decision. But Cole was the likely choice all along to face the second-place Orioles, just 1½ games behind the Yankees in the AL East, in a pivotal divisional series.
Cole, 33, will return just over three months after he was shut down during spring training in mid-March. The diagnosis, although not the worst possibility, was considered a staggering blow to a club with World Series aspirations. Outside of Cole, the staff ace, there were questions about the team’s starting pitching.
But the Yankees’ rotation has sparkled in Cole’s absence and had the lowest ERA in the majors entering Monday. The group has been led by Luis Gil, Cole’s replacement and the early American League Rookie of the Year favorite. The 26-year-old right-hander is 9-1 with an AL-best 2.03 ERA in 14 starts despite leading the majors in walks.
Cole will take Poteet’s spot in the rotation. Poteet made three starts for the Yankees in place of Clarke Schmidt, who landed on the injured list with a lat strain. The right-hander surrendered five runs (four earned) over 15 innings in the three outings.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and safety DeShon Elliott have agreed to a two-year, $12.5 million extension with $9.21 million guaranteed, a source confirmed to ESPN.
Elliott, 28, was one of the Steelers’ best run defenders last year with 2 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 4 tackles for loss and 108 combined tackles.
NFL Network first reported the deal.
A former sixth-round pick, Elliott spent his first four seasons in the league with the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions before joining the Miami Dolphins for one year.
The Steelers signed Elliott as a free agent to a two-year deal before the 2024 season.
He has 395 tackles in 72 career games.
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Tisha Thompson
Ippei Mizuhara, the disgraced former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, is in federal prison in Pennsylvania, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told ESPN on Monday.
Mizuhara, 40, was ordered to surrender to federal authorities by Monday. He is in custody at Federal Correctional Institution Allenwood Low, a low-security facility, after being sentenced to 57 months in prison for stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani.
Mizuhara was initially ordered to report to prison in March, but a federal judge granted the delay. The reasons for the delay remain under seal.
Mizuhara’s attorney declined ESPN’s request for comment, but previously stated that he expects Mizuhara, a Japanese citizen, to eventually be deported.
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara in March 2024 after an ESPN investigation revealed he sent millions in wire transfers from Ohtani’s account to an illegal bookmaker. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return in June 2024, admitting that he placed about 19,000 bets with the bookie over a two-year period and accumulated over $40 million in debt.
The bookmaker, Mathew Bowyer, pleaded guilty in August to running an illegal gambling business, money laundering and subscribing a false tax return. He is awaiting sentencing.
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