SAN ANTONIO — Gerrit Cole will be returning to lead the Yankees rotation next season, but without the fifth year to his contract he had sought. 

The veteran right-hander and team agreed to rescind Cole’s opt-out on Monday, two days after Cole, 34, exercised the clause in his contract that called for the Yankees to add another $36 million to his deal, for 2029, or send him to free agency. 

Cole’s contract — same as it was when the season ended — calls for him to receive $144 million over the next four years. 

The Yankees “weren’t comfortable” adding the fifth year to the deal just days after the World Series concluded, according to general manager Brian Cashman, and spoke to Cole and his agent Scott Boras about the possibility of rescinding the opt-out. Originally, the two sides had until 5 p.m. on Sunday to negotiate, but agreed to extend the deadline 24 hours. 

“We wanted our player and our ace back and he certainly didn’t want to go either,” Cashman said at the general managers meetings. “So we had a lot of healthy dialogue about just trying to thread the needle and keep it in play. We could always talk further as we move forward about the future, because the intent when we signed Gerrit is that he would be leading our staff until the end of his career.” 

The rescinded opt-out follows a bumpy season for the Yankees ace: He was shut down in spring training and didn’t pitch until mid-June following a diagnosis of nerve irritation and edema in his right elbow. 

Cole returned to start 17 games and pitched to a 3.41 ERA. But his failure to cover first base in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series helped fuel a Dodgers rally (five unearned runs) that contributed heavily to the Yankees loss. Overall, Cole pitched to a 2.17 ERA in the postseason. 

“The one thing that was certain in the discussions is that all parties wanted to keep the relationship going,” Cashman said. “The pressure was time frame-wise and the window that we’re in, so we removed the time frame by rescinding the option that both parties had altogether and have the remaining four years remain in place and that was at least in the short term the easiest solution to the pressure point of the problem, the time frame.” 

Cashman was asked if the Yankees had any motivation to extend Cole’s deal in the future. 

“I can speak to he’s one of the best starting pitchers in baseball and he knows us and we know him,” Cashman said. “One thing we can count on: We know New York is not too big for him, his work ethic is second to none, so we are really just comfortable to have him still in play for us.” 

Cole arrived to the Yankees before the 2020 season on a then-record contract for a pitcher of $324 million over 10 years. That mark has since been eclipsed by the 12-year contract worth $325 million that Yoshinobu Yamamoto received from the Dodgers last winter. 

Cole, since his arrival to The Bronx, is 12th in MLB in innings pitched and 13th among starting pitchers with a 3.12 ERA. 

“I think [Cole] likes our setup and playing for who he is playing for and who he is working for and I think he likes his teammates and the chance to win and sometimes the grass isn’t always greener,” Cashman said. “That goes for us too. I know we prefer not to be looking at how we’re going to replace our ace, we would rather augment that to add to our ace.”