New York Yankees: Breaking down their 2021 pitching staff

Then we have questions of performance, and even the Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole falls into these inquiries of doubt.

Gerrit Cole is perhaps the second-best pitcher in baseball right now behind Jacob deGrom, but one thing that plagued him in 2020 was his propensity to allow the long ball. Cole allowed 14 home runs last season in 73 innings of work, which tied him for the second-most allowed in 2020 behind only Matthew Boyd of Detroit and Trevor Williams of Pittsburgh who both allowed 15.

Not only that, but we saw Cole’s Statcast averages plummet from where they were in 2019 in the three categories of exit velocity, hard hit %, and barrel %. Exit velo dropped from the 75th percentile in 2019 to the 16th in 2020. Hard hit % dropped from the 59th percentile in 2019 to the 14th in 2020. Barrel % dropped from the 70th percentile in 2019 to the 25th in 2020.

What we saw last year was a little more than Cole being a hard thrower and inducing higher percentages of hard-hit balls thanks primarily to his velocity. Cole got a lot of swings and misses last year, but he also got a lot of squared up contact alongside them. There seemed to be no in-between state for him. He either plowed you over as a hitter or you returned him the favor. And more than any pitcher in baseball last year with the exception of two, Cole got himself bitten hard by the long ball.

He’s still great; I’m not saying he’s not. But there might be a little something to take concern about with him moving forward if he continues to be an all-or-nothing type of ace pitcher.