RADIO
Gerrit Cole 2023 Player Outlook: The Same Old Ace, But Cheaper This Year
2 years agoWe don't appreciate Gerrit Cole properly. Since escaping Pittsburgh, Cole has posted five straight seasons of ace-caliber production. The most impressive part of this run is that he has spent exactly zero days on the IL during all of it. He has been an iron man. In 2022, he posted his worst ERA outside of a Pirate uniform, a pretty pedestrian number of 3.50. The good news is that it came with another sparkling WHIP (1.02) and K%-BB% (27.9%). All of the underlying numbers point to Cole having been his normal dominant self, and there is no reason to think he will slow up in 2023. The inflated ERA and the "boring" feeling you get with Cole given his veteran status are sending him down a bit further in drafts this time around, and that is something we should absolutely take advantage of. Don't overthink it - Cole is still a tier-one fantasy stud; a true steal often going after pick 20.
