NEW YORK -- Yankees ace Gerrit Cole could make his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery a little sooner than expected.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone on Monday said the club is considering whether to stick with their plan to have Cole make a seventh and final rehab start in the minors or have him make his season debut at Yankee Stadium his next time on the mound.
"We'll see," Boone said before the Yankees opened a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. "We're kind of talking about that here today, tomorrow, and we'll make a call one way or the other."
The signs, beginning with the team's roster move Monday, point to Cole next taking the mound in the Bronx.
The Yankees optioned Elmer Rodriguez, who was expected to make one more start before Cole took his place in the rotation, to Triple A and called up reliever Yovanny Cruz.
Rodriguez started Sunday against the Mets. His unexpected departure leaves the Yankees without a starter Friday, when they open a three-game series against the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. Optioned pitchers must spend at least 15 days in the minors before they can be called up again unless it's to replace an injured player, likely making Rodriguez ineligible.
The 35-year-old Cole would pitch Friday on five days' rest, one more than usual. Whenever he does return, it'll be his first time pitching in a game that matters since Game 4 of the 2024 World Series. He's logged a 5.28 ERA in 29 innings across his six rehab outings. Cole had his best start Saturday when his fastball touched 99.6 mph and he allowed one run on six hits with strikeouts and one walk over 5 ⅓ innings.
He's thrown more pitches with each outing, beginning with 44 pitches in his first rehab start on April 17 to 84 pitches Saturday.
"He looks really good," Boone said. "I think this [latest] outing was a little more with probably competition in mind, like going to get guys out and stepping on it stuff wise."
Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner, underwent Tommy John in March 2025 after missing nearly three months of the 2024 season with right elbow inflammation. The Yankees won 94 games without him last season, falling a tiebreaker with the Blue Jays short of winning the American League East title before losing in four games to the Blue Jays in the AL Division Series.
New York began the season with both Cole and All-Star left-hander Carlos Rodon on the injured list, and yet the rotation remained one of the best in the majors with a 3.10 ERA entering Monday.
But the group has hit a wall recently. Rodon returned May 10 and struggled in his first two starts as the rotation. On Friday, Max Fried was placed on the injured list with a left bone bruise without a clear timeline for return.
Until Fried's setback, the Yankees were on the path to having to make a difficult decision between removing either Ryan Weathers or Will Warren from the rotation to make room for Cole. Now the opening is there. It's a matter of when.
"[Cole's] checked a lot of the boxes," Boone said. "And I feel like his last start was mostly excellent."