Video: Gerrit Cole Close to Tears, Pleads With MLB

New York Yankees' starter Gerrit Cole has been front and center in baseball's foreign substance scandal. He's now pleading, almost tearfully, with MLB to work with players on this so more people don't get hurt.

Gerrit Cole borderline in tears talking about how he can’t use Spider Tack anymore. pic.twitter.com/JVy5ZvVH9u
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) June 17, 2021

"It's so hard to grip the ball. For Pete's sake," said Cole. "Please just talk to us, please just work with us.... I would hate to see people getting hurt, I would hate to see balls flying at people's heads."

Cole said he had a very hard time gripping the ball in last night's game vs. the Toronto Blue Jays, though he still led the Yankees to a 3-2 win. Cole tossed 8 innings, and gave up just 4 hits and 2 runs. The 4 strikeouts is an abnormally low total for him, but he routinely hit 100 on the radar gun and seemed to be in control all night.

Cole's spin rate has been dropping, which he was asked about after the game:

Gerrit Cole after addressing the diminished spin rate said he was "trying to play by the rules," added "you can still pitch great without a high spin rate."
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) June 17, 2021