Reigning AL Cy Young Winner Set To Make Season Debut Against Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles will be the first team who faces off against the reigning AL Cy Young winner this season.

Jul 22, 2023; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) reacts during the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

It has been an incredible battle for the top of the AL East standings so far this season as the Baltimore Orioles have shrunk the gap between themselves and the New York Yankees to 1.5 games entering Tuesday's huge series.

Based on the strength of these two rosters, the race for the division title will likely come down to the final part of the year.

However, while the Orioles continue to lose arms with Kyle Bradish now hitting the injured list, the Yankees are getting their best arm back into the mix.

According to Talkin' Yanks, their manager Aaron Boone announced that reigning AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole will be activated on Wednesday and make his season debut against Baltimore.

The superstar has been on the shelf since Spring Training when he his throwing elbow was having issues in between starts. There was concern he might need surgery, but he was able to rehab without a procedure to get back onto the field this year.

Cole was sent on a rehab assignment June 4 to New York's Double-A affiliate, where he started two games and allowed just one earned run on four hits across eight innings pitched before getting moved to their Triple-A team.

There, he put in a completely ridiculous outing by pitching 4.1 shoutout innings where he gave up only two hits and struck out 10 batters.

The Orioles are going to have a battle on their hands to win back-to-back division crowns for the first time since the 1970s.

Without Cole, the Yankees have still had the best ERA in the MLB with a 3.02 and fifth-best among starting rotations with a 3.31.

Baltimore will have their hands full as they are dealing with injury fallout from John Means and Tyler Wells going down for the year and there being major concern Bradish could suffer the same fate with his second UCL sprain.

They added some pitching depth via waivers to help with that, but there's a chance they'll have to be a lot more aggressive around the deadline if they want to keep up with their division rivals in this race and to make a deep playoff run.