Gerrit Cole is the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff. The 22-year old righty showed massive improvement as the season progressed last year as he earned NL Rookie of the Month honors in September. He followed that month up by starting two games in the 2013 NLDS against the Cardinals where he went 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA.
Usually, once a player makes the jump to the majors, he has to work on a few things in the offseason that he didn’t in the minors. That wasn’t the case for Cole as his successes with the Pirates didn’t require him to make any changes during his break.
“I think it remains the same,” said Cole. “I mean, last year to date was the best year of my entire life, so I tried to be smart about it, threw almost 200 innings so I took some extra time off. I used spring training a little more than I would of, but the routine was pretty much the same.”
The time he did have for off-season workouts was your garden variety conditioning.
“Just the same old stuff,” Cole said. “Conditioning, leg strength, back stuff.”
With this being his first full season, Cole still experiences some nervousness in games — especially his first start of the year vs. the Cardinals — but it doesn’t affect him.
“Yeah, I was nervous [Friday]. It was exciting. It was exciting for me to get my first start under my belt.”
The nervousness doesn’t just hang with Cole. His fellow starters had some opening game jitters, themselves, but like the rookie, it doesn’t phase them.
“Once we go through the rotation the first time everyone gets to take the ball and we kind of start to settle in and start rolling, but the excitement, the anticipation is still kind of there right now, it’s early and i’m having a good time with it.”
A.J. Burnett was the clubhouse leader — especially with the pitching staff — last season and with no real replacement, Cole looks to the more experienced guys on the staff.
“We got three guys with ten years of service time,” said Cole. “All three of them know how to pitch, so I get a lot of takeaways from Liriano, Wandy, Volquez. A lot of takeaways, we’re a pretty cohesive unit, a lot of information, so it’s very similar to the atmosphere last year except there’s no real A.J. personality.”
He is also looked up to by the minor league pitchers that he threw with during his time working his way up. He has established a good relationship with fellow top-prospect, Jameson Taillon and they keep in constant touch as Taillon works his way towards the big club. Cole gives his friend any bit of advice possible to aid in his rise to the majors.
“I’ve told him to just be who he is,” said Cole. “Control what you can control. Try not to worry about promotions and winning and all that kind of stuff. Just try to get that out of your game as much as you can and just go pitch.”
It’s good advice that can be used by any young pitcher making their way through the ranks.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
