Gerrit Alan Cole is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. Cole played for the baseball team at Orange Lutheran High School, and was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2008 MLB Draft. Cole opted not to sign, and instead attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played college baseball for the UCLA Bruins.
After his college baseball career the Pirates made Cole the first overall selection in the 2011 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 2013, and was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Month in September 2013. He was named the NL Pitcher of the Month for April 2015, and an MLB All-Star in 2015. The Pirates traded Cole to the Astros in the 2017–18 offseason. On September 18, 2019, Cole became the 18th pitcher in major league history to strike out at least 300 batters in a season. On December 16, 2019, the Yankees signed Cole to a franchise record nine-year, $324 million contract, the largest contract total in major league history for a pitcher.
Cole is a member of the 2022 class of the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. He also is the franchise record-holder for strikeouts in a single season for both the Astros (2019) and the Yankees (2022), with 326 and 257 respectively. Cole won the 2023 American League Cy Young Award via unanimous vote.
