TAMPA — Gerrit Cole faced hitters for the first time this spring on Friday at Steinbrenner Field. 

In a typical season, he would be going up against an opposing team in a Grapefruit League game, but for his third season as a Yankee, Cole is in the midst of an unusual spring training. 

This time, it’s because of the MLB lockout that shut down the sport for more than three months. 

With less than three weeks to go until the Yankees’ season-opener against the Red Sox in The Bronx, Cole is in wait-and-see mode about just how much he’ll be built up by April 7 — though he made it clear his intent is to be on the mound on Opening Day. 

“That’s what I have in mind,’’ Cole said after throwing 22 pitches in just over an inning of work in live batting practice. “My focal point is to pitch the opener.” 

But even he can’t predict how deep into the game he’ll be able to go, since he won’t be able to ramp up to 100 pitches by the beginning of the season. 

There won’t be the five- or six-inning outing leading up to the opener and while Cole said his arm feels good now and so far he’s treating the spring like “business as usual,’’ that won’t be the case in the final stages of the spring, when he and other starters will be limited in how many pitches they’ll be able to throw. 

It could end up being a tough break for Cole, one of the top pitchers in the game — and one who typically starts the season very well. 

Over the course of his career, Cole has a 2.63 ERA and holds opponents to an OPS of .587 in March and April — both the best numbers of any month(s) of the season. 

And of any Cy Young-caliber pitcher, Cole could use a strong start to the year. 

Though his numbers were good last year, the 31-year-old faced many questions by the end of his second season in The Bronx after signing a nine-year, $324 million contract. 

That’s because wherever Cole ends up in terms of pitch count for the regular season, the larger question won’t be as much about whether he’ll be able to pitch into the sixth or seventh inning, as it will be about how he’ll deal with a full season of pitching after MLB cracked down on pitchers using foreign substances to add stickiness to balls in order to enhance their grips. 

Cole famously became the face of the rule change — which was implemented over a period from June to July last season — when Josh Donaldson, now his teammate, noted Cole’s drop in spin rate. 

Cole, who was involved in some of the MLBPA’s meetings with the league during the lockout, said he expected to pitch under the same rule as during the latter part of last season. 

And he hoped that knowledge would help him and other pitchers have stability throughout the year instead of being forced to adjust on the fly, as they had to a year ago. 

“We know what we’re going into,’’ Cole said. “It does a lot for people’s preparation in the offseason and not having to worry about making adjustments midseason.” 

Given the volatility of this past offseason, when MLB and the Players Association were negotiating over nearly every other part of the sport — from the competitive balance tax, to minimum salary, to an international draft — Cole said addressing the tackiness of the balls was not among the issues discussed much. 

On top of the sticky-substance issue, there’s the rough way his season ended, when Cole was hit hard in the Yankees’ wild-card loss to the Red Sox in Boston, when he was knocked out without retiring a batter in the third inning. 

He pitched through a hamstring injury in the final month of the regular season, with the Yankees trying to claw their way into the playoffs, and in his last three starts, allowed 15 runs in 17 ²/₃ innings. 

The Yankees will hope Cole stays healthy and productive this season, despite another odd start to the spring.