Gerrit Cole

Gerrit Cole is co-founder and board chair of the Gerrit and Amy Cole Foundation. Established in 2020 with his wife, Amy Cole, the foundation focuses on organizations and causes that improve the standard of living for children across the country.

Since coming to New York to pitch for the New York Yankees, the couple made a significant donation to Direct Relief, an organization that coordinated with public health authorities and nonprofit organization to assist health workers responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gerrit and Amy met while attending UCLA, where Gerrit played Division I baseball. As a student athlete, he successfully managed life both on the baseball field and in the classroom, as a Political Science major. 

After his college baseball career, Gerrit was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011. He made his major league pitching debut in 2013 and was named the National League Rookie of the Month in September of that year. In April 2015, Gerrit was named National League Pitcher of the Month and became a Major League All-Star later that summer. After being traded to the Houston Astros in 2018, he became a free agent in 2019. In December 2019, he signed a nine-year contract with the New York Yankees.

Originally from Southern California, Gerrit has been a Yankees fan from a young age, since his father, who was raised in New York, passed along his love of the team to his son. While attending a 2001 World Series between the Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gerrit was photographed holding a sign that read, “Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever.”

Gerrit and Amy welcomed their first son, Caden, to the family on June 30, 2020. Off of the baseball diamond, Gerrit enjoys cooking and hosting barbecues for his friends and teammates. Musically inclined, he also enjoys playing guitar and piano.