Troy Taormina/USA Today Sports
The Yankees pulled off the biggest move of an action-packed Winter Meetings, signing the best free agent available—pitcher Gerrit Cole—to a record-breaking deal. But how?
Obviously the money was a big factor (nine years, $324 million) but the Yankees also had an effective recruiting pitch, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman.
Cole, whose Syracuse-born father raised him as a Yankees fan in California, was “moved” by a sales pitch from legendary pitcher Andy Pettitte, Sherman writes, and also impressed by a mysterious “contraption” club officials presented to him during the recruiting process.