While it was clearly a lot of money, not many people complained when the New York Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to a massive nine-year, $324 million contract. At the end of the day, it was his expected value in Major League Baseball, even if he was already 29.
The New York Yankees have a long history of overpaying for their players. Agents know that they will go the extra mile and meet their demands just to have the biggest stars in their roster, so there's usually a bit of a "Yankee tax," if you will.
More often than not, fans don't complain about those kinds of things. And why should they? It's not like it's their money. But when you give a guy $36 million per year, you expect him to bring his A-game every single night, unlike Gerrit Cole during the biggest game of the season.
Yankees News: Gerrit Cole Made $181,000 Per Out Against The Red Sox
Sending Gerrit Cole to the mound at Fenway Park was a somewhat easy call for Aaron Boone. He's the team's ace and had already beaten the Red Sox there the last time he faced them. Then again, his numbers during the final month of the season were far from encouraging.
Even so, people expected Cole to turn the page and go back to his usual dominant self. It just didn't happen. He couldn't figure out the slow slider and wasn't in command with his high heater, either. Bottom of the 1st and the Yankees are already down 0-2.
Cole was way off and was only on the mound for 2 innings. He allowed 4 hits, 3 runs (All earned), 2 homers, and struck out 3 hitters while giving up a couple of free passes. He got six hitters out on the biggest game of his career with the Yankees thus far. That's roughly $181,666 per out.
We're not here to discuss whether a baseball player should make that much money or not. We don't pay his salary. Also, he wasn't the only person to blame for the Yankees' elimination (yes, we're also looking at you, Phil Nevin). But once again, Cole failed the Yankees when they needed him the most.
