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Prior to leaving the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade to the Houston Astros before the 2018 season, Gerrit Cole was already a very good pitcher. However, after increasing the usage of his four-seam fastball and throwing it up in the zone, he unlocked another level and reached elite status. He also made a minor tweak in his changeup grip, and now, after two seasons with the Astros, the New York Yankees will enjoy him for the long haul.
“It initially started in 2017 when I found that I was really inefficient when I was trying to throw strikes with the sinker, and sometimes it would slide off the plate or it would break too much, and I was really just trying to get count leverage in a lot of those situations, so I started mixing more four-seamers in,” Cole told YES Network’s Jack Curry and David Cone during spring training for a special episode of “Yankees Access: Cole, Cone & Curry.