Gerrit Cole said he had no idea “what to expect, to be honest,” prior to the Yankees brass meeting this week in Tampa, where they planned to start an official organizational deep dive.

Thankfully, the soon-to-be AL Cy Young champion should be able to contribute a voice.

During the weekend in Kansas City, Cole stated, “I think the players need to be represented.” “That will occur between Aaron [Judge] and myself.”

Cole and Judge are the players on the squad with the most money invested by the Yankees.

In exchange, the organization’s two cornerstones—financial and performance—have an equal stake in the Yankees’ future as they each want to win a World Series.

Hal Steinbrenner met with Cole and Judge once a month during the season so that Steinbrenner could have a regular sense of what was going on in the clubhouse.

However, Cole claimed that the discussions did not delve too far into some of the more “philosophical” discussions that are scheduled for this offseason. Judge, who recently made reference to “some bigger-picture ideas and philosophies that maybe need to change,” became more vocal after the team was eliminated from playoff contention.

Cole was receptive to learning how the audit could benefit the company in that sense.

Cole stated, “Our M.O. is always trying to get better and be competitive.” “Therefore, I don’t find it surprising that they would act in this way if they believe it will improve us and teach us something.”

Cole stated that the clubhouse, as well as himself, supported Boone, who was scheduled to meet with Steinbrenner and Cashman on Wednesday in Tampa. Judge has expressed the same opinion.

When asked what the Yankees lacked this season, Cole mentioned that they lacked the depth to withstand significant injuries.

“We couldn’t continue without Aaron and [Anthony] Rizzo,” Cole remarked. “Obviously, those are two significant chips in [our lineup], and we also couldn’t get over the difficulties with rotation. There is a ton of skill there, especially in Aaron and Rizzo, and those are obviously major production places.

Judge was lost by the Yankees on June 3rd after he tore a ligament in his big right toe after running into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium.

Rizzo’s season was sidetracked by a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. at first base a few days prior, resulting in post-concussion symptoms that forced him to miss time in August.

Cole remarked, “With those guys not playing, we should be able to do a better job.” “As a team, we need to be able to perform better there and win more games even without those people in the roster. When they work there every day, those folks will be a part of the engine, but you want a stronger base than that.

With the potential to have the best rotation in the league, the Yankees went into spring training.

Cole fulfilled his obligation, but that was all.

By the end of camp, Carlos Rodon, Luis Severino, and Frankie Montas were all hurt; when they did return, Rodon and Severino each had an ERA above six.

Despite starting the season on schedule, Nestor Cortes was never the same after spraining his hamstring on the eve of camp. He feels this ultimately contributed to the shoulder problems that caused his season to end early.

Yankees starters ended the season with an ERA of 4.44; if Cole hadn’t put up a 2.63 ERA over 209 innings, that number would have been 5.06.

The Yankees were left to regret that Cole’s exceptional season could not have continued into October.

Rather, they will utilize the month to assess how they can get better at everything from player health to analytics usage to guarantee that Cole will be a postseason pitcher the following year.

Cole stated, “We definitely have a lot of horsepower in every department that we have.” “But we must improve. They’ll probably check everywhere to see how we can improve and try to figure out how it works.