Gerrit Cole ‘worst cheater’ in MLB history

It seems Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah holds Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in high regard.

During a recent appearance with former NBA star Serge Ibaka on Sportsnet’s “How Hungry Are You,” Manoah was asked who he thinks is the “worst cheater in baseball history,” and shamelessly named Gerrit Cole.

“He used a lot of sticky stuff to improve his throws, and he kind of got called out,” Manoah said.

MLB recently cracked down on the use of foreign substances by pitchers. In 2021, umpires began regularly checking pitchers for fixes such as “Spider Tack” during any given game. Cole is one of the pitchers who would have used stick tricks in the past to improve his pitchers. The Yankees ace did not concretely deny it.

“I don’t…I don’t know…I’m not quite sure how to answer that, to be honest,” Cole said during a 2021 ESPN interview. “There are customs and practices that have been passed down from players older to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players, and I think there are some things that are definitely off limits in that regard.”

Earlier in the episode, Manoah detailed a blustery moment between the two when he and Cole got into a heated exchange during a Yankees-Blue Jays series in August after hitting Aaron Judge in the arm with a pitch. Manoah said he told Cole to “go all the way [to the mound] next time and you’ll see what happens.

It looks like he’s not ready to bury the hatchet just yet.