Yankees' Carlos Rodon hopes to tack on a solid ALDS start after a bounce-back regular season

Yankees players grew tired of talking about last season’s 82-80 embarrassment around the first or second day of spring training, and for good reason. Little in the way of positives — other than Gerrit Cole winning the American League Cy Young Award — came from 2023.

And there were few players who wanted to shove 2023 into the rearview mirror more than Carlos Rodon, who will start Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Royals on Monday night at the Stadium.

“Last year was rough, as we all know,” Rodon said Sunday on a Zoom call after the Yankees worked out at the Stadium. “I did not perform the way I felt like I should have.”

After signing a six-year, $162 million free-agent deal, the lefthander turned in a forgettable first season in the Bronx, going 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA in an injury-shortened season in which he made only 14 starts.

The rebound was significant this season. Though he had his share of hiccups along the way, Rodon went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA in 32 starts. He struck out 195 in 175 innings and was particularly good in the season’s second half, going 7-2 with a 2.91 ERA in 12 starts.

A little more than a year ago, before departing for the offseason from Kansas City,  — where Rodon had a memorable final outing, allowing eight runs without recording an out and showing up pitching coach Matt Blake on the mound — he said this season would be different.

Among his offseason goals was shedding weight, which was evident from the early days of spring training.

“I don’t recall a specific moment in time,” Aaron Boone said Sunday of when he realized it would be a different Rodon in 2024. “I know, just going through the winter and his level of commitment and accessibility and communication with the strength and conditioning and training staff, the pitching group, he was, you could tell, locked in [and] really motivated. We saw that unfold in the spring. He had a great routine and process and workmanlike way about him that you saw right away in spring training.”

Rodon, whose success in a standout 10-year big-league career — 75-63 with a 3.85 ERA — has resulted mostly from his elite fastball and slider, made mixing in his changeup and curveball, and even an occasional cutter, a priority this season.

So was channeling his emotions, which Rodon has fed off mostly in a good way in his time in the majors. But that has worked against him at times, too, such as the incident with Blake and when, after a bad start in Anaheim on July 19, he sarcastically blew a kiss to some heckling Yankees fans seated behind the visitors’ dugout.

For obvious reasons, Rodon had a far better relationship with Yankees fans this season. He is looking forward to pitching Game 2 at the Stadium, which had an energy in Game 1 that he characterized as “pretty spectacular.”

“The energy definitely fuels me,” said Rodon, who has two previous playoff outings under his belt, one relief appearance and one start in successive years with the White Sox in 2020 and 2021, neither of which went especially well. “I think it’s something I have to harness and deliver it toward the plate, but I definitely try to use that to my advantage for sure . . . It’s going to be a lot louder. I think it’s just one of those things where I accept that energy, I bring it in and I harness it, and control what I can control. As soon as that pitch leaves my hand, it’s kind of done with me. It's focusing on what I’m going to do on the mound and what pitch I’m going to throw.”

Rodon laughed.

“It’s just kind of a one-pitch-at-a-time deal. All those great cliches you guys love to hear,” he said.

Rodon’s other playoff start came in Game 4 of the 2021 ALDS against the Astros, a 10-1 White Sox home loss in which he allowed two runs, three hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings. The outing began with Jose Altuve doubling to left.

“It’s kind of one of those things where at times you just have to slow it down,” Rodon said of what he’s taken from his previous playoff appearances. “It can really speed up, especially in big situations.”