Gerrit Cole understands just how difficult it is to win a Cy Young Award. He certainly appreciates how much it means to everyone around him: his teammates, his manager, the Yankees' front office and, of course, his family.

When Cole took the stage at the annual New York Baseball Writers’ Dinner in Manhattan on a Saturday night in January to accept the 2023 American League Cy Young Award, his pride in finally taking home the hardware was on full display. Winning the award represented a full-circle moment in his life, and it reminded him of where his baseball journey began.

“I’m very humbled by this award,” Cole said during his speech at the New York Hilton Midtown. “It’s a truly special honor that fills me with pride and validation for the hard work and effort that we put into our craft.”

“Some of my earliest memories take place in the garage of my childhood house,” Cole continued, recalling the countless hours that his parents spent practicing with him as he envisioned becoming a big leaguer someday. “It’s hard for me to believe that those dreams I had as a boy are still the same ones I have today. I’m so thankful for the talent that God has given me, and for also surrounding me with those amazing people who have helped support me every step of the way.”

For all the good feelings Cole shared upon winning his first Cy Young, he remains far more interested in being linked to two other words: consistent greatness. Winning the award gave Cole a long-awaited accolade that he came close to capturing on several other occasions in his career to date, but it is the sum of what he did during those years -- combined with how he competed in 2023 -- that he truly hangs his hat on.

“That’s probably the more meaningful part of the competitive aspect of who I am, in trying to be the best pitcher out there,” Cole said a few days before the dinner from his California home. “You have to show up to work every spring. Especially when you have this opportunity, you’ve got to make the most of it. Being able to be consistent every year is what I’m shooting for. Doing that gives me more pride and a greater sense of validation than winning the Cy Young Award. Each year of work is recognized as a whole, and when you’re talking about the greatest pitchers of all time, they all have one characteristic: They have all had numerous Cy Young-worthy seasons. I’m definitely aware of how important that is.”

In keeping with that mindset, Cole’s drive to continue to stack seasons in which he is among the best in the game remains as strong as it was when he broke into the Majors at 22 years old.

“I’m in the thick of it,” he said. “I have to keep my head down and keep going. I have big goals and aspirations. Put it this way: I’m more excited to get to work in Spring Training than I am about winning the award. That’s not a knock on the importance of the Cy Young; it’s just a look into where I’m at in my life and in my career.”

It’s also a reflection of just how focused Cole has been over a big league career that is now entering its 12th season. In five years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, two in Houston and four with the Yankees, his consistency -- driven by a fierce, 365-days-a-year work ethic -- has undoubtedly put him on a track that could lead to the Hall of Fame.

Pitching in an era when hitters are encouraged to swing for the fences, Cole has produced a lifetime 3.17 ERA, ranking him fifth among active pitchers with at least 1,000 innings pitched, and he has completed five seasons with an ERA under 3.00. The six-time All-Star has won the AL ERA title twice, and he reached 20 wins with the Astros in 2019. His 145-75 record to this point equals a .659 winning percentage, which is higher than that of Cooperstown immortals Bob Gibson (.591) and Sandy Koufax (.655).

When evaluating Cole’s career during a mid-winter day in the Bronx, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman pointed to another measure.

“He’s consistently in the high-end voting for the Cy Young Award,” Cashman said. “I think you can make a strong argument that when his teammate, Justin Verlander, won it with the Astros in 2019, that he should have actually taken home the award. On a year-in, year-out basis, Gerrit has finished in the top tier for the award, so it was validation when he could finally push through on one of them. Gerrit is not a guy who has a great year, then has a season or two where his ERA is really high, or he’s dealing with injuries and then comes back with another great season. He’s punching the clock every year with a Cy Young-caliber performance even if he doesn’t pull down the award. He’s been consistently perfect just about every season, and that’s incredibly rare.”

From the time that Cashman signed the free-agent pitcher to a nine-year contract in December 2019, the ace has been everything the franchise could have hoped for on the mound. On the days when Cole is not pitching, he reminds the general manager of the last pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in pinstripes prior to 2023.

“His work ethic is Roger Clemens-like,” Cashman said. “He’s on an extreme, high-level autopilot of being an alpha dog that wants perfection in his craft. He has elevated our rotation and the entire staff, along with the entire pitching department. He collaborates with the front office about finding every single edge he possibly can to understand what is transpiring on a start-to-start basis.”

On the heels of a 2022 campaign in which he broke the Yankees’ single-season strikeout mark -- punching out a league-leading 257 batters, nine more than previous record-holder Ron Guidry amassed in 1978 -- Cole picked up where he left off in 2023. Facing the San Francisco Giants to start the regular season at Yankee Stadium, Cole set another team record with 11 Opening Day strikeouts. More importantly, his six innings of shutout ball gave him early-season momentum that he hadn’t always found in previous years.

“Certainly, that was an advantage,” Cole said. “I’ve won Pitcher of the Month for April earlier in my career, and I’ve also had some slow starts. There’s something to be said for being in a situation at the end of May where opposing hitters are asking themselves how they have to adjust to me, as opposed to me trying to figure out what adjustments I need to make. The dance can be done either way, but it’s a lot more relaxing to look at it from the perspective of, ‘OK, now they have to make a move.’ I felt really good about where I was in April, and it allowed me to make more of a conscious effort to take the mound for each start a little more fine-tuned than in the previous game. I feel like we executed that well and implemented that routine throughout the season.”

Another early-season highlight came on April 16, when Cole took the mound against Minnesota at Yankee Stadium. Having already won his first three games, the right-hander went the distance in a 2-0 win -- the fourth shutout of his career. He struck out 10 batters that day while allowing just three baserunners.

“I was getting better as the game was going on,” he said. “I just settled into the environment. I was executing high-quality pitches with ease after I had settled in. Even though it was a tight game, I think because of the control I had, there wasn’t even a discussion about taking me out.”

When the calendar turned to May, Cole hit a stretch that, in Boone’s opinion, “really showed the type of character” the pitcher has. After giving up five runs against Tampa Bay, Cole pitched well in his next two starts. Then, to close out the month, he gave up five earned runs in back-to-back starts against Baltimore and San Diego.

While those two outings were uncharacteristic for Cole, with a little luck, they could have just as easily been two gems. In the Baltimore game, Cole pitched into the sixth inning of a 4-4 game but got snakebit by two singles that sent him to the clubhouse. Against San Diego, he had given up three runs through six but came back out in the seventh in an effort to save the team’s depleted bullpen despite acknowledging to Boone that he was feeling gassed. That inning, Cole gave up a home run to former Yankee Rougned Odor but still earned a win.

Regardless of the circumstances in those two starts, if Cole were to make progress toward a Cy Young Award, he would have to get back to the type of dominance he displayed for the first month and a half. With the Yankees facing the Dodgers in an important early June series, Cole gave his team six innings of one-run ball en route to his seventh win.

As Boone studied Cole’s game log from last year at his desk, he gravitated to that warm Southern California day and began to smile.

“All right,” the manager began. “I would say that the Dodgers start was the most significant one for Gerrit last season. It was a time in which we were still playing well. He had come off a couple of games that didn’t go his way late. That was his first moment of truth in 2023. We were in L.A., playing the Dodgers, so naturally, there were a lot of eyeballs on our team and specifically on Gerrit.

“He went out and pitched a great game against a really elite offense. That game stood out to me; I feel like it set him up for the rest of the year. He just rolled from there. It was one of those moments in the Cy Young season where he needed to go out and pitch well, and he did.”

Although Cole didn’t feel as if the run of success that began in early June was the product of an adjustment, on a more macro level, he was candid about a change he made prior to the 2023 campaign. After giving up a career-high 33 home runs in 2022, the pitcher took a fresh approach.

“There were some home runs in ’22 that particularly stung,” Cole said. “Some of them dramatically changed the opportunity for us to win the game in the late innings. And that’s a blessing and a curse. It means that you’ve been out there for a long time, and you’ve gone to the bell in every inning. There were plenty of opportunities to win those games, but there were some punches that landed late and were momentum-killing and frustrating. When I was looking back, that was one of the statistics that prevented a good season from being great.”

In the months leading up to his Opening Day start in 2023, Cole did a deep dive into what went wrong in those pivotal late-inning moments.

“I tried to evaluate a lot of those situations and find any common variables. One thing that I found, rooted in some objectivity, was the pitch mix. We didn’t just look at the pitches I was throwing in those situations, but also where they were thrown. Utilizing the entire strike zone was something that Ron Guidry talked to me about in Spring Training all the time, and it was something that we identified as a group in the offseason that needed to be a priority. Now, looking back at 2023 and that specific data, we can say that we executed it at a high level.”

That was only one part of Cole’s discovery into what was plaguing him in those high-leverage moments.

“I also put a lot of work in mentally,” Cole said. “I wanted to make sure that when the game gets to one of those tipping points, that I’m in a space where I’m thinking clearly. I wanted to be in a much better space and be more prepared to choose the right pitch. Having a clear mind helps you in decision-making and in throwing the pitch.”

As Cole attempted to find a way to stay in a relaxed frame of mind during even the most challenging moments, he learned that there was more to keeping an even keel than he previously thought.

“I think it’s about taking a lot of mental reps,” he said. “For me, it was about training my mind so that I was taking deep breaths consistently before and after those moments. Over the course of the game, there were less undulations, high and low. The goal was to spend more time during games right in the middle, right where you need to be with just enough edge.”

The work paid off for Cole. He gave up 20 home runs in 2023, his lowest total (save for the shortened 2020 season) since 2018. For Boone, the effort that Cole made to elevate his game in the wake of a record-breaking 2022 performance is what separates him from the competition.

“Great players make adjustments,” Boone said. “Gerrit didn’t just accept the idea that the home runs were inevitable during a season in which he struck out 257 batters and constantly attacked the strike zone. He wanted to figure out why guys were hitting more home runs off of him than in the past. It’s really a credit to him for constantly evolving.”

Beginning with the pandemic-shortened 2020 season through 2023, Yankees manager Aaron Boone has found himself continually impressed by Cole, in every aspect.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to watch him navigate,” Boone said from Yankee Stadium over the winter. “He’s meticulous and detailed with every aspect of what he does, not just pitching. His preparation and how he deals with things that come up are things that I really admire. He’s had moments where he faced adversity or went through a tough stretch or had a start that meant the world, and he’s answered the bell every time. That’s a testament to the discipline and his attention to detail in every aspect of his life that he shapes into his profession.

“He knows how to rest. He knows how to prepare. He knows what his body needs to go out there every fifth day and deliver. It’s been enjoyable to watch him meet moments of truth and pass every time. Being a great pitcher, a great teammate and a great Yankee really matters to him. Those things show up every day with Gerrit.”

From the start against the Dodgers through his last trip to the mound in 2023, Cole was magical, pitching at least six innings in 18 of 21 starts. He finished the year with a 15-4 record, leading the American League with a .789 winning percentage, 209 innings and a WHIP of 0.98.

Over the entire course of the regular season, Cole took the mound 33 times, and in 26 of those starts, he gave his team at least five innings of work while allowing two runs or fewer. Throw in a three-run outing over 7 1/3 innings in a July 8 victory against the Chicago Cubs, and the total number of games in which Cole put his team in position to win was a staggering 27.

“There are two things that contribute to that,” Cole said. “The first thing is the consistency of play within your team. Your challenge is to find different ways to produce the same results. On some days, you’re going to need an amazing play or solid defense. You’re going to need a catcher that’s more in tune with the game than you are. It wasn’t just me blowing the ball past batters 27 out of the 33 times I was out there. There’s more than one person reflected in that stat.

“Pitching is like bull riding in a sense. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get that day, both from yourself and from the opposition. There’s a little bit of adrenaline in that, to where you’re going to be in situations where you’re uncomfortable because of various factors that are stacking up against you. You might not have all of your pitches working on a certain day, but you have to find excitement in riding the wave. You need to have moxie on those days; you have to think outside the box sometimes and throw pitches that will surprise batters. Knowing how to do that is paramount in achieving a Cy Young Award season.”

When considering Cole’s consistency last season, Cashman expressed the respect he has for the workhorse performances Cole gave the team on the days when the California native had to figure out ways to get outs through perseverance.

“This guy is going to be a Hall of Famer,” Cashman said. “He’s one of the greatest starters in the game. That’s why he got the contract he got, and he’s earning every penny of it. He gives you a chance to win. He saves your bullpen. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve used the bullpen aggressively to win games and then desperately needed Gerrit to pitch deep into a game to resuscitate the bullpen. He almost always does what is necessary to get that done, regardless of what the circumstances are.”

During the stretch run of Cole’s near-perfect season, he spent time with another Yankees pitching legend, Andy Pettitte. Now a team advisor, Pettitte shared how he narrowly missed out on earning a Cy Young Award, despite winning 21 games in 1996. The coveted hardware ultimately went to Pat Hentgen of the Blue Jays, who won 20 and also threw a league-leading 10 complete games.

“Andy just said, ‘Hey man, you need to get this thing,’” Cole recalled. “We talked a lot about the season in which he finished second, and he felt like I really had a great chance to bring it home. I will always remember him telling me, ‘You’ve got to go for it. This is yours.’”

Cole left nothing to chance in his last seven starts of the season. Despite his team’s low position in the AL East standings, leading to an October without postseason baseball for the first time since 2016, the Yankees won every time the ace took the hill from Aug. 25 through the end of September.

Cole allowed one earned run on Aug. 25, during 7 2/3 innings of work against Tampa Bay in which he struck out 11 hitters. Then, during the season’s final month, he gave up just four total runs in five starts, and he didn’t give up a single home run in September.

“He was impressive,” Aaron Judge said during the team’s final homestand of 2023. “What a show he put on for us this last month. The way he works on a daily basis and competes on the mound, it’s everything you would want out of an ace. It’s been an honor competing with him this year.”

Cole saved his best for last, tossing his second shutout of the season on Sept. 27 in Toronto. Facing a high-powered offensive club, Cole was aware of the task ahead of him in his final start of the season.

“I knew that Toronto was on the bubble, trying to get into the postseason,” he said. “I knew that they were going to really come at me. I needed to have some edge in that game, and I needed to pitch well.”

Not unlike when Judge raced toward the American League single-season home run record in 2022, the team rallied behind Cole as he forged his path toward his own seminal accomplishment.

“It meant a lot to all of us,” Boone said. “In the last month of the season, it was one of those extra things that we had a chance to play for when we were falling out of the race. There was a lot on the line every fifth day. We wanted to show up for him and get that for him. Gerrit was at his best when he needed to put the finishing touches on that award.”

When Guidry found out that Cole had won the award, he reached out to his friend, welcoming him to the exclusive club of six Yankees who have garnered the most prestigious pitching accolade in the sport.

“Ron just said, ‘Finally, you used the entire strike zone,’” Cole recalled. “‘Now, let’s try to do it again next year.’”

That’s exactly what Cole is focused on. He is determined to duplicate his performance from a year ago, help his team win games and hopefully compete for a championship. He wants to continue to put together seasons like those he has authored over the last decade. He doesn’t plan to think about his Cy Young Award much during Spring Training or throughout the dog days of summer, and his Cooperstown credentials are “for a conversation far down the road.”

But thinking about the players he’ll be forever linked to, the likes of Whitey Ford, Guidry and Clemens -- the last three starting pitchers to win the American League Cy Young Award in pinstripes -- puts the honor in perspective for Cole.

“It just feels amazing,” he said. “When you say those names and you think about what they mean to the Yankees brand and to our legacy as an organization, that’s really heavy stuff. To be mentioned with them, it’s really, really special.”

Alfred Santasiere III is the Editor-In-Chief of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the Spring 2024 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.