Gerrit Cole's Instagram story shows he's officially on his way back to Yankees

The spring training blow that was losing Gerrit Cole not only cast a shadow over the New York Yankees' 2025 season, but also cast a shadow of doubt over the club's 2026 campaign as well.

While advancements have been made, the typical recovery time to get back on the mound following Tommy John surgery is 12-18 months. Given that Cole underwent the procedure in the middle of March, even the best-case scenario threatens his availability for Opening Day. Combine the fact that Carlos Rodón will also miss the first few weeks of the season, at least, and the state of the rotation is already as bleak as it was to start 2025, and spring training has yet to begin.

The Yankees will need to add to the rotation regardless, but a positive Cole update would go a long way toward calming some nerves in the Bronx. Fortunately, that's exactly what we got on Saturday.

Gerrit Cole posts video of himself throwing a bullpen session as he gears up for his Yankees return

Cole took to social media to post a video of himself pitching off the mound in the Yankee Stadium bullpen, bringing delight to concerned fans all over the greater New York City area.

This is the latest step in his progression and should provide some optimism that he'll be ready to go sooner rather than later once 2026 begins.

Back in August, Cole began his throwing program off of flat ground, which was set to progress over the next few months before he could return to throwing off of a mound. With Saturday's bullpen session, he is right on schedule.

The idea is to then shut him down in order to go through a normal offseason, before beginning to ramp back up in spring training. Reports when he began his throwing program cited a 14-month recovery period, which would seem to have him targeting a mid-May return.

Of course, we're not out of the woods yet, but the indications so far have all been positive as Cole seems to positively answer question after question at each step of his recovery.

The one looming question we'll certainly have to wait on is exactly how he'll look once he returns to action. Throughout the years, hurlers recovering from Tommy John often experience velocity dips and reduced effectiveness for another year once they return to action.

That will be something to monitor with Cole, who already saw his average fastball decrease by nearly one mile per hour to 95.9 from his career average of 96.8 while muddling through elbow issues in 2024.

One step at a time, but this latest one was a big one that should have everyone feeling good about how his recovery is going.