Yankees sign Gerrit Cole: Community reaction

It’s the news that Yankees fans have been waiting months to hear, and some probably thought they never would: Gerrit Cole is a New York Yankee.

After years of pursuing him, the Yankees finally got their man, signing Cole to a nine-year, $324 million deal that instantly makes the team World Series favorites.

The news broke shortly before midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and sent Yankees fans into hysteria. Some of the best reactions came from our own community of fans at Pinstripe Alley:

Listen, the comments section can sometimes be divisive. High fives all around is a welcome change.

“Content” is one of the best ways to describe this news. So much rode on this decision, and the Yankees came out on top and did what they had to do. Additionally, they did it early into the Winter Meetings, which is a far better outcome than last year’s drag of a free agency season.

Yup, this move has George Steinbrenner’s fingerprints all over it. For the first time since his first offseason in charge, Hal lived up to his father’s name in terms of spending money with no abandon. The Evil Empire is indeed back, which also led to some quality Star Wars memes in the comments section:

Yankees legend Andy Pettitte reportedly played a big role in wooing Cole to the big city, and one of our Twitter commenters had an excellent idea for how to open the season:

Although there are nothing but good feelings to be had right now, there is one potentially interesting business component of this deal next season. Both Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton will be free agents next winter, and it’s safe to wonder if the Yankees will feel comfortable investing big bucks in a starter over the age of 30.

Although it’s way too early to be gloom and doom about any aspect of this signing, the idea that 2020 is the Yankees’ most loaded team of the championship window is probably true. It’s hard to predict how long the window will last, but this move undoubtedly gives the Yankees their best possible team from top to bottom in 2020, before some offseasons of significant change could take place.

But again, let’s not worry about that yet. The Yankees finally acquired their white whale. How are you feeling about it, Yankees fans?