Astros' Cole credits Verlander for epic turnaround
Houston Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole has been baseball's best pitcher through the first several weeks of the 2018 campaign, leading the majors in wins above replacement (2.5) thanks to 13.68 Ks/9, 1.60 BBs/9, and a 1.42 ERA.
Cole's doing all this after a pair of seasons filled with mixed results as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He says new teammate Justin Verlander is the primary reason he's turned the corner, and that his transformation may not have happened if the Pirates didn't trade him.
"I would be in the same spot physically," Cole told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports, "But the information I’ve gotten from Justin, my peers, and from the club, that’s been pretty invaluable. I really leaned on some of those suggestions, especially from Justin.
"So, I don’t think this would have happened in Pittsburgh just because Justin wasn’t on my team."
The pedigree has always been there. The Pirates selected Cole with the first overall pick in the 2011 draft and he finished as a top-four finalist in Cy Young voting by his age-24 season. But, injuries and ineffectiveness crept in and Cole never rediscovered the same success until his move to Houston.
Related: Astros' Cole continues scorching start with 16 Ks in complete game
Verlander's influence began with a game of catch, during which he taught Cole how to generate movement on his four-seam fastball and how to adjust the sequence of the pitches he throws.
"It wasn’t like I was trying to be a mentor type," Verlander said. "We just sort of started talking. He hadn’t really heard a bunch of stuff that we were talking about, and hadn’t really thought about it.
"It was just learning how to sequence his pitches, and use his pitches more effectively. He was doing stuff ass-backward. He was doing it all wrong. When people say now, 'How did this happen to him?' Well, watch him pitch. Watch how he sequences his pitches now versus to what he did before."
So far, it's worked. Cole is 3-1 over his first seven starts and has pitched into the seventh inning each time, registering double-digit strikeouts in five different games after doing so just six times in his career prior to 2018.
Cole will have to sustain his improvements over the course of a long season - he's thrown only 50 2/3 innings in an Astros uniform - but the early results have been astounding, making him an early front-runner to take home Cy Young hardware at season's end.