Yankees’ Gerrit Cole has no interest in accelerating rehab after hard-throwing live BP session

TAMPA — Shortly after Gerrit Cole faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery last spring, Aaron Judge said that “you would have never known” the Cy Young winner was coming off a procedure that robbed him of the entire 2025 season. “It looked like the old 45 that I’ve seen for years,” Judge said Friday after grounding out against Cole, who faced three batters, threw about 20 pitches, sat around 95-96 mph with his fastball and topped out at 96.9 mph. Told of Judge’s assessment on Saturday morning, Cole said it was “a great compliment” to hear. “I wasn’t in a rehab mindset yesterday,” he continued. “I was just in that performance mindset. So it didn’t feel like anything other than how it used to feel going out there and competing.” Cole said that he had “fun” facing hitters again, and that he found the outing to be “rewarding and refreshing.” More importantly, he felt good during the session and again on Saturday morning. He added that he was “a little surprised,” that he threw as hard as he did, though he noted that he’s pretty built up. But with all going well for the right-hander thus far, Cole put to rest any speculation that he may try to expedite his rehab plans. “It’s great to feel great,” he said, “but I don’t think it makes me want to accelerate.” Cole, 35, previously reiterated that full Tommy John reconstruction comes with a 14-18-month timetable. That means he could return sometime in May — that would be on the earlier side — or June if all continues to go well. Cole and the Yankees have left the door open for the pitcher to throw in spring training games before camp ends, but they haven’t settled on how many more live batting practice sessions he’ll have to participate in before graduating to that step.