MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 24, 2024

Gerrit Cole

Dodger Stadium

New York Yankees

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. I see the smile that's on your face. Is that just a small example of how excited you and your teammates are to be here?

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, for sure, and I watched you growing up. So it's always good to see you, Jim.

(Laughter).

No, this is obviously very special for us. It's something that we worked very hard for. So we're looking forward to being here and looking forward to competing.

Q. Gerrit, a lot of the statistics are very similar between the Yankees and Dodgers offenses -- chase rate, home run, slugging especially. What's the challenge of facing a lineup like that with plate discipline and power?

GERRIT COLE: I think the challenge is trying to just be convicted to every pitch. You're not really sure what the opposition is going to do, and you know that they're lethal when they do swing. So you've got to give every pitch a chance by fully committing to it.

So be it, if the ball gets hit, hopefully you take those situations and you learn from them, just like you do when you have success.

Q. A couple of years ago when Judge was about to go to free agency, you were pretty vociferous about wanting him to stay. Have you thought the same about Soto? Are you trying to lobby him at all yet?

GERRIT COLE: I've left him alone in terms of that. I certainly would love to see him stay. I think he's a wonderful player and an amazing talent. Hopefully the actions of this organization, both of his teammates and everybody that pours into this club, speak for themselves in terms of how much we want him and what he means to us, especially while he's here.

Q. And not wanting to take anything away from anybody else, but do you consider that he's the major reason why you're here this year? Last year you had an 82-80 season.

GERRIT COLE: Certainly. Obviously Aaron being healthy all year has played a huge role as well, and the rotation has been fantastic. There's a lot of credit to be divvied up amongst all the players. It always takes a full 26-man roster to get to this position, and you never know who's going to contribute in big games as we go forward.

To say that Juan has been extremely consistent and extremely potent throughout the entire season, he's definitely done that for us. And that's been something that we've had to lean on at times and at times really enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Q. Boone said he thinks this team has been like a family. What do you think it is about this team's culture that has been special?

GERRIT COLE: I think our communication is high. I think we're really honest with each other about our emotions and about our feelings. I think that we are really connected in the way that we play. We try to learn from our mistakes and just have open conversations about those things.

I think when you have that type of closeness with your teammates, that's the kind of stuff that fosters relationships that translates both to playing well and having friends and family for a long time.

Q. The Dodgers are similar to you guys in that they have a row of superstars in your lineup. You guys have Judge, Soto, Stanton. They have Ohtani and Betts and Freeman. Just being a pitcher, do you have to prepare yourself different mentally before you face that lane?

GERRIT COLE: I mean, ideally no. Ideally, you're prepping for every game the same way. You obviously know of the talent and know of the prowess of the other team and how they can swing the bat with how efficacy.

I think that they are going to get their hits at some point in this series. They are good players, and they obviously have played really well to this point.

Similar to the first question, you just try to control what you can control in that situation. That's preparing like you normally do and throwing as many convicted pitches as you can.

Q. Starting pitcher injuries were so prevalent this year, even amongst the really good teams. What does it mean to have gotten this far this deep with a full rotation intact, and what kind of difference could that make in this series?

GERRIT COLE: I personally experienced some of that myself for the first time, and I feel really grateful and thankful to everybody that's poured into me to be able to get me to this position.

As far as the rest of our rotation, it goes without saying that Nestor led the card for us all year, throwing the most amount of innings and putting us in a good position through the ups and downs of people being injured. Carlos has obviously had a fantastic bounceback season. Luis is in consideration for Rookie of the Year. Clarke Schmidt has been in a similar situation as mine to where he's had to bounce back.

I think there's been a lot of obviously positive performances and then some performances that have had to come back from some adversity. So I think that makes us really well poised to continue to do what we've been doing all year through this next week.

Q. You've got a lot of experience with how your body and your arm is supposed to feel deep into October. Do you feel any different now, even fresher, or are there challenges or anything based on starting your season a little later?

GERRIT COLE: No. I'm ready to go.

I would also like to add that Mark has obviously had a great season for us in reference back to that last question.

Andy, for you, I feel I'm good to go. I'm in a good spot.

Q. Gerrit, you were a Friday night starter not too far from here. What did you learn about being a big game pitcher at UCLA?

GERRIT COLE: I think the challenge in big games is to make them really no bigger than they really are. It's the same game we've been playing all year.

I feel like to a certain extent I really enjoy these moments. Just personally, I think that may be part of experiencing a lot of them along the way, but also just the excitement that comes with competing against the best.

I guess in UCLA having pitched big games there and going through my career, it's been a wealth of experience that I've enjoyed.

Q. Going back to your previous series experience, was there any difference in attitude or approach between Game 1 and Game 5?

GERRIT COLE: Previous?

Q. In '19.

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, we made an adjustment between Game 1 and Game 5. Juan kind of did his thing in the first game, which that's kind of tough to -- like a lot of people, it's kind of tough to compete against sometimes when the big dogs are doing their thing.

But we made a good adjustment going into Game 5, and we learned from our mistakes in Game 1.

Q. Was it just mechanical stuff or attitude or the way you approached it?

GERRIT COLE: It's a little bit of everything, a little bit of everything.

Q. What did Fernando Valenzuela's death mean to you? Again, previously World Series between Yankees and Dodgers.

GERRIT COLE: Yeah, I was really sad to read about it the other day. I can't recall if I -- I think I had met him in passing maybe once or twice, and I had heard that there was maybe a bit of an issue a few weeks ago, but I didn't know much about it. So I was taken off guard, and I was deeply saddened.

He's one of the great Dodgers of all time, one of the great Mexican players of all time, and he's a legend. It's just sad he won't be here for this series, but he's probably got a great seat for it upstairs.

Q. There's a bunch of local guys on both teams like yourself. What can you say about the talent that comes out of this area? And then for yourself, playing in the World Series in an area that you grew up in.

GERRIT COLE: It's a dream come true. It's a really wild experience, to be honest. It probably hasn't sunk in all the way. Southern California is a hotbed for talent. The blessing is that we can play baseball all year. So there's always time to work on your game. Sometimes actually playing all year may not be super beneficial.

For the most part, it's a great -- it's a collection of great talent, which I think it's really easy to see sometimes the cream that rises to the crop, and that's why you see a lot of great players come out of this area.

Q. A quick follow-up, your manager said, if you go to USC, you're a Trojan for life. If you go to UCLA, you're a Bruin for four years. What's your take on that?

GERRIT COLE: You know, Aaron and I don't always agree on everything.

(Laughter).

Q. That time away that you spent at the beginning of the season dealing with your arm injury, was there anything you learned about yourself or about the game of baseball from kind of having to take that time off?

GERRIT COLE: I had a few interesting experiences and new perspectives that I otherwise hadn't had. Obviously when we were at home, I was at all the games. But when the team goes on the road for nine or ten days and you're playing with your kids every day and you're doing rehab, just the speed of the game, you kind of lose a little bit of feel for that.

And you kind of lose a little bit of feel for the stresses or the ups and downs that emotionally the club is going through. So coming back into some games off the road trip is a really interesting perspective that I just kind of view the game very freshly and not be tainted with some of the emotions that have been going on in the clubhouse or really just seeing the speed of the game.

I found myself feeling really blessed a lot of times to just take in a lot of the great players we have and see the game from just like more of a -- less of like tactical and I guess like analytical, for lack of a better word. But just like fresh, and like this is just a baseball game, and watching body language and seeing how people are going about it. Almost like if you were taking your kid to a baseball game for the first time, like that experience is really raw and it's rooted a lot in the body language and the competitiveness of the players.

So that was a perspective that was nice to have, and hopefully I learned some things from it.

Q. You mixed in a few sinkers against the Guardians in that Game 2 start. Do you see that pitch playing a role against some of the Dodgers' righties?

GERRIT COLE: I foresee myself doing whatever is necessary to get the out.

Q. Of course you're on a team that's full of superstars and MVPs, but how do you guys keep each other grounded on and off the field, especially entering a stage like the World Series?

GERRIT COLE: That's a great question. I think it comes down to the way that we prepare to do kind of the mundane things. I think our leaders set a great example in going about their business every day and taking a professional and focused approach. Ideally that permeates throughout the rest of the group.

There's opportunities for everybody on this team to be a leader at any different time, but there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. And if you're taking those reps at a championship level, preparing yourself for trying to have championship execution while you're on the field, I think that's really what keeps you grounded.

Because the lights aren't on you. The TVs aren't on you. There's no glory while you're grinding in the cage, but if you go about your business the same way, that kind of builds a connectivity between the two.