Gerrit Cole Needs Tommy John Surgery | Fantasy Baseball Impact for Yankees, Including Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren

The New York Yankees starting rotation has taken a couple of hits already, and we are still a couple weeks away from the regular season starting.

The latest, and biggest, news is ace Gerrit Cole needing Tommy John surgery.

He'll miss the entire 2025 season, and probably won't be able to return until midseason in 2026.

Let's discuss what this injury news means for Cole and the Yankees, in the real world and for fantasy.

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Cole's Numbers and Outlook

Cole only made 17 starts last season after dealing with another injury in the early part of the season.

Cole went 8-5 with a 3.41 earned run average across his 17 starts. He struck out 99 batters across 95 innings of work.

In 1,954 career innings, Cole is 153-80 and has a 3.18 ERA. He has struck out 2,251 batters as well.

Cole is an ace, even though he was entering his age-34 season. 

This injury news obviously means Cole should go undrafted in redraft leagues. If you already drafted and have Cole, you can safely drop him and look elsewhere, although it will be difficult to replace a pitcher like Cole.

In dynasty and keeper leagues, Cole still has value, although considering his age, things are not super bright anymore. He'll be at least 35 when he returns to the mound, and maybe 36.

Cole still looked like he had plenty in the tank prior to the injury, but his long-term outlook definitely looks less promising now. Even if he pitches until he's 40, that's only four more seasons, and post-injury, you have to wonder how Cole will look.

You could look into trading Cole in dynasty/keeper leagues, but the return is probably going to be pretty weak, so you might just have to ride things out and hope he can return to his ace level of pitching in a year or so.

Yankees' Outlook

In the real world, this is a big blow to the Yankees' title chances.

According to FanGraphs, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren are now the projected five-man rotation to begin the season.

The Yankees are hoping to get Luis Gil back in the early portion of the season, but he's out with a strained lat. JT Brubaker is another injured starter, but not expected to return until July.

Brent Headrick is the team's projected long reliever and could get starts in a pinch.

Carlos Carrasco is the team's most notable non-roster invitee among starting pitchers this spring. Another injury could vault him into the starting rotation, if he doesn't win a spot over Warren.

Clayton Beeter is a top-30 prospect of the team with some starting experience in the minors. The same can be said about Yoendrys Gomez, but neither of those guys are top-end prospects.

I'd guess the Yankees are going to either add a free agent starting pitcher in the next couple of days, or trade for one. They need more bodies after the injuries to Gil and now Cole.

Fantasy Outlook

Obviously with Gil and Cole out, it opens starting opportunities for a couple pitchers. 

I'd say Fried, Rodon and Stroman are all locked into the rotation at this point, and Schmidt is pretty close to a lock now. Warren will need to pitch well to probably maintain his rotation spot if/when Gil is ready to return.

The Yankees still have a good offense, and that makes any starting pitcher of theirs a pretty good fantasy asset. 

Fried is the top-drafted starting pitcher now that Cole is out. His fantasy outlook won't go up, but he's the best fantasy starter on the team.

Rodon is the next guy off draft boards, but going around pick 130. He's going to be owned in most leagues, but probably not every single one.

Gil was a good draft option, but with him missing several weeks at least, he's a better deep-league option to begin the season. He can picked up when he's nearing a return.

Stroman and Schmidt might get a little standard league draft attention now, but I think they are also better deep-league options to kick off the season. They can be streamed in standard leagues in favorable matchups though.

Warren is a better option in dynasty/keeper leagues, but falls into the same boat as Stroman and Schmidt, just without much MLB success to his name.

FantasySP will be covering the Yankees more in depth in an article later this week, so check back for that. Keep checking in all season to see what players are stepping up and maybe helping fill the massive void left by Cole.