Gerrit Cole Fantasy News and Statistics

After a couple of false reports had sent him to New York and Houston, respectively, earlier in the offseason, the Houston Astros finally acquired Gerrit Cole on January 13 to complete what figures to be the best rotation in baseball. In his first five seasons, Cole has produced a .584 winning percentage and 3.50 ERA. A move to the Astros in the AL West for 2018 should only help him as he’s no longer the ace. He’ll now slide in behind Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel alongside former rotation mate Charlie Morton. While Cole’s overall numbers are good, his 2017 was the worst of his career and the Astros acquired him primarily for his potential, expecting more in 2018 than what he provided the Pirates in 2017.

2017: The worst season of his career by the numbers, Cole did prove one very important thing in 2017: health. Making 33 starts, he gave the Pirates 203 innings and proved to have a workhorse arm. The biggest difference between Cole of 2017 and Cole prior to that was the home run ball. He has a career home run per nine innings ratio of 0.8, but it jumped to 1.4 as he allowed 31 dingers in 2017, 20 more than his previous career high. The opposition squared up on Cole’s stuff better than ever, leading to a 4.26 ERA. The biggest issue is most of Cole’s arsenal is hard, so hitters can time him well.