NY Post · Dec 1, 2019
Gerrit Cole insider: Initial Yankees rejection was key to everything
John Savage knows about recruiting Gerrit Cole.
The longtime UCLA head coach got the right-hander to commit to the Bruins out of Orange Lutheran HS in Southern California then waited to see if he’d actually get to coach him.
“We were pretty comfortable we would be able to hold onto him,” Savage said by phone. “No one believed me.”
That’s because Cole was a first-round talent out of high school, and many thought he’d wind up going pro instead. The Yankees ended up selecting him with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2008 draft but couldn’t sign him.
Now the Yankees are among the teams trying to land the coveted free agent, and Savage is among those waiting to see where he goes.