Confusing update on Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery doesn't change Yankees timeline

This story has been updated after an initial tweet suggesting a different recovery timeline was deleted.

While nothing about New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole missing the entire 2025 season and returning at the age of 35 at a $36 million annual cost is good, you don't have to play pretend to see a minor silver lining after Thursday afternoon's update.

The specter of Cole's UCL is no longer hanging over every fastball with extra oomph, every grimace, and every brief collection of thought on the mound. The issue has been dealt with. The 2025 Yankees' ceiling has been significantly lowered, but now Cole can relax, rehab, and counsel his rotation mates along the way without the added pressure of hanging on by a thread - literally.

Typical Tommy John surgery rehab would keep him out for an "average" of 14-16 months, though that could always be longer for an aging pitcher. Plus, when pitchers return, their stuff comes back quickly, but their command often takes time. Cole might not have looked like himself until later in the 2026 season - or possibly 2027.

Yankees fans were briefly dealt a bolt of surprising news on Thursday, as Bryan Hoch revealed that Cole actually underwent an internal brace procedure, rather than a standard Tommy John, to repair his UCL. That meant that his ligament might not have been completely torn. It also meant he could've return closer to Opening Day next season rather than midsummer.

Unfortunately, that was too good to be true; Brendan Kuty of The Athletic noted later in the evening that Cole had a full reconstruction AND an internal brace. The 14-to-16-month recovery timeline, and fears about a longer recovery of his full command, still stands. We can't have nice things.

Yankees' Gerrit Cole has internal bracing with UCL surgery/typical Tommy John

All of a sudden, calls for Cole to have "had the surgery in November" no longer hold up or matter; for those November conspiracy theorists out there, Bryan Hoch clarified that the Yankees did examine Cole when the World Series ended and found no reason to believe he'd need preemptive surgery.

Recent pitchers who've undergone the internal brace include Spencer Strider and Lucas Giolito. Unfortunately, Cole will not join that growing club, despite a brief indication to the contrary.