Yankees making Gerrit Cole injury as painful as possible with conflicting reports

There are so many colleges and universities in the state of New York. Hell, there are tons in New York City alone! Can somebody in the Yankees organization get in the classroom for a public relations course? One singular employee?

News broke early Monday that Gerrit Cole was headed for an MRI on his pitching elbow because he's been having trouble recovering in between starts (even though he's only had one start). Any time a player goes for this type of testing, it rarely yields good news.

Now, had this news not come out of nowhere and in conjunction with the ridiculous Aaron Judge "mid-spring beat up" that will keep him out of action until Wednesday (for now!), fans still would've been freaking out, but their ire wouldn't be directed at the organization.

The problem? The team then leaked to SNY's Andy Martino that the MRI was a "precautionary" measure and that there isn't "extreme concern," but you also must remember that the Yankees never send players for precautionary testing. And even if they do, they never report it, so why start now?

Then, an hour later, MLB.com's Bryan Hoch reported the Yankees might not have the MRI results by Monday or Tuesday, and that there will be multiple opinions provided for Cole's potential course of action. That's great, so we'll just sit here worried and listen to Martino and Hoch battle it out as they hit us with updates from both ends of the spectrum?

Yankees making Gerrit Cole news as painful as possible with vague, conflicting updates

Martino has stood by his reporting in regard to the precautionary tone and that the early signs don't portend doom. He relayed that the general tone of something like this is obviously hard to grapple with, but Cole hasn't experienced pain and his velocity has been right where it needs to be. Those are good signs, one could say, and a reason to stay somewhat calm.

Then again, Boone told reporters that there's been a "level of discomfort," which would indicate something is off physically.

On the other hand, Hoch said this was a "gut punch" to the clubhouse because of Cole's reputation as a durable, elite arm. The fact that there's uncertainty surrounding what might be wrong with Cole has also rightfully drummed up concern.

It's understandable the Yankees need to take their time here, but to drop a bomb on everybody out of nowhere on a Monday morning, with no warning, even though Cole hasn't pitched in a game since March 1, and then to leave everybody in the dark for (possibly) days with conflicting reports floating around, is yet another PR fail from the organization. Cole was supposed to start on Tuesday March 12, which still doesn't exactly line up because that would have him on a 10-day rest plan (he could've started March 7, 10 or 11 if he was only playing in the home games, which he probably is).

If Cole's out for the year, 2024 is done. And that's not even being pessimistic or childish -- it's the reality. It's legitimate proof based on how the team was constructed. And if the team isn't going to consider signing Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery, that's really it.

Given how serious the implications were, fans just really wish the Yankees treated the news with some sort of tact instead of whatever slapdash manner they went about it.