Yankees: Gerrit Cole Instagram story shows he’s on comeback trail

The nebulous nature of MLB’s COVID-IL tells you all you need to know about the virus, with different sets of rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated players, as well as different expectations heaped upon pitchers and hitters.

Does this mean the league has gotten things down to an exact science? Far from it; it’s all just guess work, which is why so much wiggle room remains regarding return dates. If you think the league’s protocols are perfect, just ask the extremely vaccinated Yankees, who’ve battled three separate outbreaks after passing the 85% threshold.

Gerrit Cole is among the latest to test positive, and though the hope seems to be that all offensive players will pop off the COVID reserve list in 10 days, pitchers have typically been given additional ramp-up time to prevent overuse injuries.

For those waiting for an update on Cole’s symptoms, though (he was reportedly vaccinated), Monday’s social media stories gave us a promising clue.

According to Cole’s wife Amy (which he endorsed with a re-post), the righty tossed in the backyard on Monday with his adorable infant son Caden in tow, toeing the rubber as well.

We’ve still got questions, but this video provides some of the right answers, as the fan base hopes and prays Cole’s available by the Red Sox doubleheader on 8/17.

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is throwing in his backyard.

Wonderful to see. Though it tells us very little about Cole’s forthcoming throwing program and timeline for return, seeing the ace on his feet and in action must mean his breakthrough symptoms are minimal, if they exist at all.

As for the further questions … who’s catching him? It’s not Amy, a softball superstar in her own right. Unless someone else is manning the camera … ?

Plus, how does one-year-old Caden Cole already have so much swagger, balance and poise?

Most importantly, it seems like this family (with a one-year-old involved) has evaded serious health risks on their road to recovery.

And, on Wednesday, what do you know? We got more Gerrit AND more Caden. The momentum continues.

Ideally, we’ll be seeing Cole on the bump in the Bronx soon enough, as opposed to on the manhole cover in his backyard, showing his son a proper slurve grip.

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