Gerrit Cole Took A Line Drive Off The Top Of The Head
Scary moment here, obviously. You never want to see anybody get hurt on the baseball diamond, but it’s especially scary for Pirates fans, given that Gerrit Cole is one of the best players in the game that’s 25 and under. I just hope that we don’t see another rule change because of something like this. MLB has been doing their best lately to protect their players — which is great, don’t get me wrong — and we’ve seen our fair share of pitchers getting drilled with comebackers over the years. Johnny Cueto took a line drive off the forehead just this past spring training, so I fear that if it continues to happen to star pitchers like Cueto and Cole, that the MLB will make a knee jerk decision that most pitchers won’t be happy with.
The MLB has been pretty rule change-happy lately. We saw it with Buster Posey getting injured at home plate and Ruben Tejada getting injured at second base. I feel like we could be one serious injury on the mound away from the MLB overreacting and forcing every pitcher to wear those stupid concussion helmet hats when they’re pitching. I talked about this a couple months back when MLB introduced their new protective headwear for pitchers, and I believe that this type of equipment should be available to all pitchers who want it. But it should also be their choice. Every pitcher who toes that rubber on a major league mound is aware of all the risks that come with being a pitcher at that level. If you want to protect yourself, the MLB should provide the equipment to do so. If you don’t want to wear it, then that’s on you.