Yankees about to get even better when Gerrit Cole returns

MLB

By Jon Heyman

BOSTON — A jubilant Gerrit Cole jetted back from his 10-strikeout, 4 ²/₃ -inning Rochester tune-up and excitedly told us he’ll “definitely” be back pitching in the big leagues soon. Which has to be a very scary proposition for the rest of the American League.

The Yankees are establishing themselves as World Series favorites through 73 games, and that they are doing it without the best pitcher in MLB is a marvel. That won’t be the case much longer. Cole looked ready and his stat line for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre screamed ready.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t quite commit to inserting Cole right into the rotation, although doing anything else seems overly cautious now. In any case, no one had to say a word. Cole’s peppy demeanor and dominant performance told you he’s at least on the cusp.
This is rough for the remainder of the league. For Boone, the only negative presumably is having the unenviable task of telling unknown but uber-effective Cody Poteet — whose only commonality with Cole is that they are both UCLA Bruin alums — that he’ll have to leave the rotation.

Yes, the team that entered spring training with a rotation that seemed perilously thin, now has extras, not even counting the estimable and always confident Clarke Schmidt, who’ll in a matter of weeks be waiting in the wings. The only staff that’s posted an ERA below 3.00 (2.88 entering Saturday) is soon making a pre-deadline acquisition to top them all.

The Yankees took a day off from their domination of their schedule in game two of the first series of the season with their rival Red Sox. They dropped an 8-4 game Saturday night, thanks to the mostly resurrected star Carlos Rodon surrendering five quick runs before finding his rhythm. But there’s little doubt who’s the class of the junior circuit through 45 percent of the schedule.

The Yankees aren’t celebrating quite yet, of course. They are too smart for that. But they actually are improving by the week. They’re 13-4 in their past 17, 17-6 in their past 23, 24-8 in their past 32 and 30-10 in their past 40.

They talk like they don’t want to jinx it. But they know. They have to know.

“These guys have played outstanding baseball to start the season. But we know that’s all it is — it’s the start to the season,” Boone said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

Fair enough, but their popularity is at such a height their fans were easily heard here at Fenway, or what the operators of this ancient facility modestly call “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.” (I’m not sure I’ve heard an actual Red Sox fan call it that, however.) Anyway, a “Let’s go Yankees” chant could be heard almost every other inning. (The other chant, with the not nice word, was heard at times, too.)

Sometimes the hardcore Red Sox fans, who obviously occupied by far the majority of the sellout crowd of 36,673, didn’t seem to have the energy to drown out the foreign rallying call. It’s been that kind of year up here.

They know it’s no use. These Yankees are simply too good.

The “disaster” of their 82-80 season behind them, the Yankees are back to being the real Bronx Bombers again. Their tops-in-MLB 50th victory — happily won here Friday night — provided a nice punctuation mark to a brilliant beginning.

A huge winter meetings where they acquired energetic outfielder Alex Verdugo in addition to the great Juan Soto, a progression to the mean and a steadfast belief that they’d get healthier (how could they not?) marked them as slight American League favorites to start the year. But hardly anybody saw this coming. (Certainly not me, who envisioned them as a third-place team. Sorry about that call!)

The Yankees are posting big numbers — their plus-130 run differential tells quite the story — and flat dominating their schedule. They lead the American League in runs scored with 367, on-base percentage at .333, OPS at .771 and a bunch of other stuff. The tandem of Soto and Aaron Judge are as unstoppable as the Yankees imagined when they sent half a rotation to San Diego for Soto (but avoided surrendering top prospects Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr. or Roderick Arias).

If Judge isn’t MVP, then it’s Soto, who’s now up to a career-best 11 straight games reaching base at least twice. No one wanted to pick a favorite for the award in their clubhouse. (I know, I tried asking, but was shut down.)

Soto, though, gave thanks for Judge, the fire to Soto’s ice.

“It’s really nice to hit in front of him,” Soto told The Post. “When you have a guy like Judge behind you, it’s one of the best things you can have. … You don’t have to be the hero every time.”

Boone, meantime, is happy to have the league’s MVP co-favorites together. (Predictably, he also wouldn’t say who leads that race.)

“When [Soto] and Judgie are doing what they’re doing,” Boone said, “It’s just another level from everyone [else].”

Speaking of another level, the defending Cy Young winner will only make this superb Yankees team even better.