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Yankees' Gerrit Cole is three wins from 'wild' MLB history never done before originally appeared on The Sporting News .
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The New York Yankees ' starting rotation is one of, if not the best, in MLB this season. Cam Schlittler is the Cy Young favorite, Max Fried is incredible, and now even Gerrit Cole is back from injury.
While Cole isn't going to win any awards this season, he does have a realistic chance to accomplish some history that, surprisingly, has never been done before.
As Tyler Kepner of The Athletic shared, Cole is just three wins away from 162 for his career, which would be the only time in MLB history that a pitcher has reached that win total who was drafted No. 1 overall in the MLB Draft.
Gerrit Cole is 3 wins from MLB history for No. 1 picks
"Call it Club 162, a victory for every game of a regular season, spread out across a pitcher's career," Kepner writes. "It's a level Gerrit Cole will reach with three more wins, and it would not be notable except for one curious fact: No pitcher drafted first overall has ever done it."
There have been plenty of pitchers drafted with the No. 1 overall pick before, and yet, none have ever reached 162 wins in their career.
While it might initially seem like an arbitrary number, having a win in all 162 games of a regular season is quite the accomplishment.
With 200 wins being a hard mark to reach, likely one not many will ever reach again, 162 wins might be the modern benchmark for an elite pitcher when it comes to career wins.
So, if Cole records three more wins, which is possible during the remainder of the 2026 MLB season, he could join some incredible company, while also making history as the only first-overall pick to reach 162 wins in their career.
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Cole told Kepner recently after hearing about this potential history: "That's wild. That's wild. That's kinda neat, I've got to be honest."
He almost didn't have a chance to make this MLB history, as Mike Moore, the 1981 first overall pick, recorded 161 wins in his MLB career, one shy of this 162-win benchmark.
Plenty of other pitchers got well over 100 wins, including David Price, who had 157 in his big-league career. But Cole is the only one who currently has a chance, with Paul Skenes and Casey Mize a long way off from this record.
Three more wins, and Cole makes MLB history that, as he put it, would be "wild" to make. It's surprisingly not been done before, but this feat could give Cole a strong argument as the best first-overall pitcher pick in MLB history.
This record should be Cole's fairly soon, as he will have at least three more starts in August, plus all of September to win just three more games. It's very doable for Cole, and this never-before-done MLB history could be his soon.
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