Gerrit Cole: podcast appearances and interviews

Gerrit Alan Cole is an American professional baseball pitcher who plays for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. He previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros. Cole attended Orange Lutheran High School, where he played on the baseball team, and was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft but chose not to sign. Instead, he played college baseball at the University of California, Los Angeles, for the UCLA Bruins. Following his college career, Cole was the first overall pick in the 2011 MLB draft by the Pirates. He made his major league debut in 2013, earning the National League Rookie of the Month honors in September of that year, and was named the NL Pitcher of the Month in April 2015. He was also selected as an MLB All-Star in 2015. The Pirates traded Cole to the Houston Astros during the 2017-18 offseason. On September 18, 2019, he became the 18th pitcher in MLB history to strike out at least 300 batters in a season. In December 2019, Cole signed a nine-year contract with the Yankees, valued at 324 million dollars, which set a record for the largest contract total for a pitcher in MLB history. He is a member of the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame and holds franchise records for strikeouts in a single season for both the Astros and Yankees. Cole won the American League Cy Young Award in 2023 via unanimous vote.