Hinch: Cole Doesn't Need To Be Fixed
Astros manager A.J. Hinch is confident former Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole will bounce back from a rough 2017 season.
Houston Astros recruit Gerrit Cole has possibly the best arsenal in MLB with a fastball in the upper 90s and three more pitches many scouts grade as above average.
Despite all of the tools though, the talk around Cole this offseason is how to fix the former National League Cy Young candidate after the worst campaign of his career.
The 27-year-old starting pitcher, however, has a new home and a confident new manager after being traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to reigning World Series champions the Astros.
His new skipper A.J. Hinch sees no need to drastically change the young man.
"We feel like there's some adjustments that we can make that will make him a little bit better, but we feel the same way about [Justin] Verlander and [Dallas] Keuchel and Lance [McCullers]," Hinch told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday. "He doesn’t need to be fixed."
Cole had a career-worst 4.26 ERA in 203 innings in 2017 and gave up 31 home runs after allowing 36 in his previous four years combined.
His season was not great, but in a campaign where homers flew out of MLB ballparks at a record rate, his numbers may have been a bit misleading.
Cole said he is looking forward to doing some new things and doing it somewhere new.
"I’m pretty relaxed right now," Cole said. "A change of environment has been really nice."