Yankees Spring Training Update: Gerrit Cole, Cody Bellinger, Austin Wells, and more

On Friday night, the New York Yankees climbed back to .500 at spring training with a victory over the Blue Jays at George M. Steinbrenner Field. To be honest, the team's output has largely satisfied fans thus far.

The offense has looked pretty good. Dom Smith is stating his case. Spencer Jones, Everson Pereira and Alexander Vargas have showed some early pop. Cody Bellinger joined them Friday with his first home run as a Yankee.

With the Yankees up 1-0 and facing former Astros top prospect Jake Bloss, Bellinger took one deep to right. field to extend New York's lead. It was a trademark Bellinger swing fans have been hoping to see exploit the short porch in the Bronx.

Belli is hitting .500 with a 1.400 OPS in 10 at-bats this spring. He's been seeing the ball well early and his defense has looked excellent. While this has nothing to do with regular season play, it's reassuring that he isn't immediately falling flat in his first reps with the team (something that happens far too often with other players).

Yankees Spring Training Update: Austin Wells, Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge

Before Bellinger, Austin Wells clubbed a leadoff homer to get the Yanks on the board with a shot of his own to right field. He's started spring going 2-for-4 with three RBI — another encouraging start after some early concerns.

Wells arrived to spring but was seen stepping in the batter's box for live BP and not swinging the bat. When asked about it, he said he was taking his time and "wasn't ready" to start swinging against live pitching. Fans were concerned over whether that meant he was dealing with an injury or having trouble with his mechanics.

But Wells' first two performances made everybody forget why they were even worried at all in the first place.

And how about Gerrit Cole's debut! He didn't exactly face a gauntlet of Blue Jays hitters, but he struck out five over 3 1/3 innings of work, allowing one run on three hits before being lifted in the fourth.

He averaged 95 MPH on his fastball and his off-speed stuff looked particularly sharp. After concerns about his elbow last season and how it would hold up heading into 2025, this is another relief to the start of spring as other injuries have began to chew away at the Yankees' depth.

We've got a few more bullet points for Yankees fans this morning as well:

• Aaron Judge is making his spring debut Saturday against the Astros
• Jasson Dominguez's struggles in left field continue, as he dropped another fly ball during Thursday's contest
• Sean Boyle added 2 2/3 innings to his scoreless total this spring after relieving Cole
• Luis Gil is headed for an MRI on Saturday after experiencing shoulder soreness during a throwing session
• Saturday is Oswaldo Cabrera's birthday!