Amid a crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances, Gerrit Cole struggled to give an answer when asked whether he has ever used a particular sticky paste called Spider Tack while on the mound.

"I don't [long pause] ... I don't know ... I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest," Cole said.

He then paused again before continuing, "There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players, and I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard.

"This is important to a lot of people who love the game, including the players in this room, including fans, including teams, so if MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that's a conversation that we can have. Because ultimately we should all be pulling in the same direction on this."