Yankees' Carlos Rodon can't help turn around struggling rotation
Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodon stands on the mound as manager Aaron Boone approaches to take him out of the game during the sixth inning of an MLB game against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Carlos Rodon didn’t perform terribly on Sunday against the Giants, the team he used as a one-season springboard to the six-year, $162 million contract that landed him in the Bronx.
In fact, for five innings, he was everything the Yankees hope for when Rodon takes the mound: an aggressive, efficient, strike-throwing machine, bordering on dominant.
Ultimately, however, Rodon wasn’t good enough — teeing up a pair of homers by Jung Hoo Lee that decided the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to San Francisco — which is emblematic of the Yankees’ rotation as a whole.
To think Hal Steinbrenner spent more than $110 million on this starting staff alone, and the return on his investment has been a 5.40 ERA that is last in the majors.
Obviously, it doesn’t help that Gerrit Cole, two years removed from his Cy Young Award-winning season, is on the shelf until 2026 because of Tommy John surgery. That’s $36 million out the window right there. Losing Luis Gil, the reigning Rookie of the Year, stings, too. But at least he’ll be back from his lat muscle strain at some point, ideally in June. Not having Clarke Schmidt, who will make his 2025 debut on Wednesday against the Royals after rehabbing a rotator cuff strain, left another sizable hole.
Still, none of that excuses what the surviving starters have done through the first two weeks of the season. We understand it’s a pieced-together group with a trio of pitchers who wouldn’t have made the rotation out of spring training if not for the sudden rash of injuries. But with the exception of Max Fried, the $218 million ace signed in the offseason, all manager Aaron Boone can do lately is hand over the ball and pray.
And that shouldn’t be the case with Rodon, who’s flunking his audition to take over a leadership role in Cole’s absence. Rodon was paid a big chunk of cash to be a backup ace to Cole when he first arrived, and he should be comfortable in pinstripes by now. Unlike Fried, there’s no more transition period. And Rodon should be an oasis for Boone in a desert of rotation uncertainty that includes a rookie in Will Warren, a 38-year-old journeyman in Carlos Carrasco and whatever label you want to stick on Marcus Stroman, who was put on the 15-day injured list on Saturday with knee inflammation.
“I wouldn’t say it’s really crossed my mind much,” Rodon said of stepping up to help fill the Cole vacancy. “Just focusing on giving my best effort out there. Trying to win ballgames.”
The injury to Stroman, who had a brief two-out cameo in Friday’s 9-1 bulldozing by the Giants, comes at a convenient time, allowing the Yankees to swap his 11.57 ERA for the return of the reliable Schmidt. That should make for somewhat of a market correction. But whatever your view of the “quality start” designation — six innings, three runs — only Fried had posted one in 14 tries before Rodon had the chance to double that total Sunday.
Instead, it was Lee — the former KBO star who came over on a $113 million deal with the Giants before last season — who almost singlehandedly wrecked the Yankees’ rotation this weekend. On Friday, he drilled a three-run homer off Stroman through a chilly rain in the first inning. Facing Rodon, he reached down to golf a full-count slider over the rightfield wall for a solo homer in the fourth — the Giants’ first hit — and then flipped the Yankees’ 3-1 lead with his three-run blast in the sixth.
Rodon unraveled during that inning, which began with No. 9 hitter Christian Koss reaching on an infield single. A one-out walk to Willy Adames didn’t seem to be a major problem when Rodon quickly got the count to 0-and-2 against Lee. But after he failed to get him to chase a sinker in the dirt and Lee fought off another sinker inside, Rodon proceeded to hang a rainbow curve at the top of the strike zone that was pummeled into the seats.
“A critical mistake,” Boone said. “It’s really one pitch that hurt his outing. But around that, he was excellent.”
That shouldn’t be much of a consolation when there’s an L attached to the linescore. Rodon did have eight strikeouts and allowed only three hits, but two of them wound up over the wall, saddling him with a 5.48 ERA through four starts.
Since the beginning of 2024, his 36 homers allowed lead the majors. However you want to frame the rest of his performances around those 36 pitches, it doesn’t erase the damage, and Rodon flushed a 3-1 lead Sunday in relatively short order.
When Boone was asked if Rodon seems prone to committing his most glaring mistakes when the game’s on the line, the manager disagreed.
“I don’t think that’s the case because I think he’s made a lot of big pitches,” he said. “His stuff is prone to the long ball. So especially in certain situations, preventing that as best we can is a challenge.”
Now it’s about getting through the next three days. Carrasco starts Monday’s series against the Royals — last October’s ALDS foe — and will be followed by Fried and Schmidt. With the Yankees’ rotation already sitting at the bottom of the league, anything would be an improvement from here.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.