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How much did the Yankees’ hopes hinge on a healthy Gerrit Cole? We’re about to find out. Plus: Dave Roberts’ extension, this year’s Hope-O-Meter and some very bad hats. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Brandon Sloter / Getty Images
Bummers: Tommy John for Gerrit Cole
Just as yesterday’s edition of The Windup was hitting inboxes, news broke that Gerrit Cole’s elbow was almost certainly going to require Tommy John surgery. After getting a second opinion, it was later confirmed: The Yankees ace will miss the entire 2025 season (and likely a good chunk of 2026).
It was maybe two weeks ago that — in this very newsletter — I said the Yankees actually might be better in 2025 than they were last year. Then came the injuries to Giancarlo Stanton and Luis Gil, chipping away at the foundation. This one, though? This is critical damage.
A Yankees rotation with Cole, Max Fried and Gil at the top was potentially a top-10 rotation. Now? As Brendan Kuty put it: “The Riddler’s suit has fewer question marks.” Right now, it’s probably Fried, Carlos Rodón, Marcus Stroman, Clarke Schmidt (who is making his spring debut today) and Will Warren — with Carlos Carrasco as the first line of depth, and then hopes that Gil will return around midseason. By one measurement, that’s now a bottom-10 rotation.
The Yankees have already had to pivot once since their World Series loss, putting together an impressive Plan B when Juan Soto signed with the Mets. Now, they have the unenviable task of scrambling yet again and hoping there’s a strong Plan C available.
One possibility: Would Dylan Cease (Padres) or Sandy Alcantara (Marlins) be available in a trade?
Ken’s Notebook: Dodgers’ Roberts came back from the brink
On the occasion of manager Dave Roberts agreeing to a four-year, $32.4 million extension with the Dodgers yesterday, I could not help but think back to how perilous his position might have been if his team had suffered its third straight Division Series defeat last October. Here is the beginning of a column I wrote after the Dodgers eliminated the Padres:
LOS ANGELES — A loss in Game 5, a third straight elimination in the Division Series by a lower-seeded NL West opponent, and that might have been it. Not that Dave Roberts would have deserved to be fired. But the noise would have been loud. Real loud. Perhaps too loud for the Dodgers to ignore.
“There was some part of it that was on my mind if we didn’t win the series,” Roberts said in the aftermath of one of his finest professional moments, a 2-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night that advanced the Dodgers to the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.
“I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t kind of bleed in. That’s the profession, the job. But at the end of the day, I was proud of myself for not letting any outside noise or things I can’t control affect the way I managed these games. I had complete clarity. I believed in our players. And they performed.”
Down two games to one, dealing with a depleted starting rotation and injuries to first baseman Freddie Freeman and shortstop Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers became almost a $300 million underdog. The Padres scored 16 runs in a span of 11 innings in Games 2 and 3. They had a chance to close out the series at home. And in the final 24 innings, the Dodgers held them scoreless.
No manager acts solely on his own. Teams develop strategies collaboratively, incorporating data and input from the front office. But fairly or not, the manager is ultimately viewed as responsible for in-game decisions. And too many times in October, Roberts faced intense scrutiny for pitching moves that backfired, the opposite position of where he was in the final two games of this series.
As Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “The theater of October baseball is all outcome-based. If you have a good outcome, positive things are said and written. If you have a bad outcome, really bad things are said and written.”
And narratives form. If the Dodgers had lost Friday night, it might not have mattered that Roberts’ .627 winning percentage is the highest of any non-Negro Leagues manager. It might not have mattered that his front office’s pitching choices again left the team’s rotation short. The Dodgers might have gone looking for the proverbial “fresh voice.”
More Roberts extension: Where does he rank among the great Dodgers managers?
Feedback Loop: The 2025 Hope-O-Meter is here
This is always a fun one from Stephen Nesbitt. For the fourth year running, we opened up the comments to our readers, asking just how hopeful you’re feeling about your team as Opening Day approaches.
Yet again, you did not disappoint. Rather than break down the actual hope percentages — they’re all in the article here — I’m just going to relate a few comments from readers that got a good snort-laugh out of me.
The optimists:
Ben (Royals): Two words: Bobby Witt.
Jack (Royals): Three words: Bobby Witt Jr.
Marc (Brewers): Until the Little Engine That Could breaks down, I’m sitting in the dining car drinking coffee and smoking big cigars.
Eric (Dodgers): On several occasions, I have forgotten they added Blake Snell. That’s how blessed we are right now. (Note: Eric, I’ve forgotten that too, and this is my actual job.)
Max (Mets): As the best broadcaster in baseball, Gary Cohen, said a few years ago after a deflating loss: “Someday, the worm will turn.” That worm just turned into the sandworm from “Dune” with Paul Atreides riding its back.
The pessimists:
Casey (Padres): Up in the C-Suites, it’s “Succession,” except it’s not funny, and everyone is Kendall.
David (Astros): End of a dynasty with no groceries in the fridge.
Daniel (A’s): They don’t even have a city.
Jan (Angels): This team is a rudderless wreck seeking a reef to crash on.
Anonymous (Rockies): I’m more optimistic I’ll drink a martini stirred with ice from Pluto than I am that the Rockies will qualify for the postseason in my lifetime.
Scott (White Sox): The bar is set so low it’s in Hell’s root cellar. This team plans to tunnel underneath it.
Plenty more in the Hope-O-Meter.
Whoops: The hats, they are bad
For a hot minute, these New Era stunts were a regular occurrence — remember the “Local Market” caps?
It feels like they’ve gone a bit quiet recently, like a child who is doing their dead-level best to behave at the dinner table. Twitching. Squirming. Holding their breath. But yesterday, finally, they snapped, and the result was a screaming, levitating, food fight of a hat design.
The concept was simple: Put the team name or city name on a cap, and then slap the usual logo right there on top of it. Ill-advised in concept … exponentially worse in practice.
How are all my BoBon, PaSDes and AsHos fans doing today?
I genuinely do not know if I am allowed to put a photo of the Rangers cap here, because it spells out a word in Spanish that I think our HR team would yell at me for putting in the newsletter. It was the only one of the 30 caps that was pulled from the store — as a compromise, here’s a link to our story about that.
I’m putting it in the Bad Cap Hall of Fame right beside the A’s one from — sheesh, that was just last year?? I guess you can only hold your breath for so long.
Handshakes and High Fives
(Top photo: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
