Yankees' Cole to make first rehab start Friday

NEW YORK -- Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole, sidelined since undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2025, will make his first rehab start Friday with Double-A Somerset, manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday after his club's 5-4 walk-off win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Team officials were deciding between having Cole pitch in a game or in another simulated setting going into his side session Wednesday after he tossed 42 pitches over three innings in a live batting practice Sunday.

"I have no complaints," Cole said Monday of Sunday's live batting practice session. "Stamina was good. Pitches are fine -- they're good, they're good. I'm being a little nitpicky, but everything's good."

"I think we'll get him to a higher threshold initially, but it's one step at a time," manager Aaron Boone added prior to Thursday afternoon's game against the Angels. "Looking forward to him starting on Friday and we'll build him from there and then even when he gets back to us we'll probably be conservative with him but we'll probably get him to a higher threshold initially."

The Yankees anticipate Cole will return in June but will gradually build him up and take advantage of rules about the length of minor league rehab assignments for pitchers coming back from injury.

While position players' minor league rehab assignments are limited to 20 days, pitchers have 30 days and those recovering from Tommy John surgery may receive three consecutive 10-day extensions.

Before Wednesday's game, Boone said Carlos Rodón, who underwent left elbow surgery to remove bone chips in October, will throw another live batting practice session Saturday rather than begin a rehab assignment. The left-hander threw 50 pitches in a simulated setting Monday at Yankee Stadium.

While Rodón has not pitched in a game since the postseason in October, Cole appeared in two games during spring training, logging 2⅔ innings. The six-time All-Star and 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner had previously not pitched in a competitive game since starting Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.

Cole, 35, will join shortstop Anthony Volpe on rehab assignment with Somerset. Volpe played in his first game since having surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder in October, for Somerset on Tuesday. He logged five innings at shortstop and went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts against rehabbing Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler.

Volpe was back at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday and went through drill work pregame. He is scheduled to return to Somerset to play Thursday, Friday and Sunday before possibly joining Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre next week.

"I want to run the bases," Volpe said. "I want to dive.

"Those are kind of the checkpoints that I want to see out of myself. And then get into the flow of the season. Go night to day, go back to back. Get my innings up. I want to do that as soon as I can."

Volpe played through the shoulder injury for most of last season. He and the Yankees said it did not affect his performance, but he regressed offensively and defensively from 2024, finishing as one of the least productive everyday players in the majors with an 83 wRC+ and 1.0 fWAR in 153 games.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman recently said Volpe will return as the starting shortstop. Jose Caballero has assumed the role in Volpe's absence and was a central figure in New York's walk-off wins against the Angels on Monday and Wednesday.

On Monday, he doubled, stole third base and scored the winning run on a wild pitch. On Wednesday, after playing standout defense throughout the night, he delivered the game-winning two-run double to complete a rally ignited by the Angels allowing Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s one-out popup in the infield to drop.

But Caballero was scuffling mightily before this week's heroics and is batting .186 with a .543 OPS in 63 plate appearances this season.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.