Carlos Rodón

Carlos Rodon is the New York Yankees' $162 million bet that a left-handed arm with a career-altering slider can stay healthy long enough to matter in October. Signed in December 2022 to pair with Gerrit Cole atop the rotation, Rodon brought a no-hitter, a Cy Young-caliber season with San Francisco, and a medical file thicker than most phone books. When he's right, he's one of the nastiest lefties in baseball. He just hasn't been right nearly enough.

Path to the Bronx

Rodon grew up in Miami -- a city where baseball isn't a hobby, it's a family obligation -- and went to NC State, where he turned himself into the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 draft. The White Sox grabbed him, and what followed was seven years of "what if" on the South Side: flashes of dominance interrupted by a biceps tenodesis procedure after 2019, elbow problems, and an 8.22 ERA in the COVID year that nobody wants to talk about.

Then 2021 happened. Rodon came back healthy, re-tooled his slider, and threw a no-hitter at Guaranteed Rate Field against Cleveland on April 14th. He retired the first 26 batters -- a freakin' perfect game through 8.2 innings -- before hitting Roberto Perez with a pitch. (Imagine losing a perfecto on a hit batter. That's the most Carlos Rodon thing possible.) He finished 13-5 with a 2.37 ERA, made his first All-Star team, and finished 5th in AL Cy Young voting behind Robbie Ray. Suddenly he looked like a different pitcher.

The Giants signed him to a one-year, $44 million deal for 2022 -- the kind of number that makes you check if there's a typo. Rodon made it look cheap. He led NL starters in strikeouts with 237, went 14-12 with a 2.88 ERA, finished 3rd in Cy Young voting, and walked into free agency with Scott Boras holding the door open. (Boras probably had the contract printed before the last out of the regular season.)

The Yankees pounced. Six years, $162 million -- signed roughly the same week they locked up Aaron Judge for $360 million. Most expensive two weeks in franchise history, and it wasn't close.

Yankees Career

Here's where the story gets complicated. Rodon opened 2023 looking sharp -- 12-6, 3.05 ERA, 145 strikeouts -- but a shoulder injury shut him down after 19 starts. The club missed him down the stretch. brought more of the same: forearm and elbow issues, 20 starts, a 4.46 ERA (9-8 record), and the quiet frustration of watching a $27-million-a-year arm sit in the training room while the Yankees tried to win a pennant without him.

The pattern's hard to ignore. Rodon's never thrown 200 innings in a season. His one full year -- 178 innings in San Francisco -- is the closest he's come. Two years into the deal, the Yankees still haven't seen what a healthy full season from Rodon actually looks like. (They're paying to find out, whether they like the answer or not.)

Key Moments

What Now?

The talent's never been the question with Rodon. His slider still makes hitters look silly. The stuff grades out as ace-level when he's throwing it -- the problem is the "when." He's got four years and north of $100 million left on the deal, and the Yankees need him to be more than a 19-start pitcher if they're serious about hanging banners.

Four years left. A slider that can still buckle knees. And a body that hasn't cooperated since the day he cashed the check. If Rodon figures out the health part, this story changes completely. That's still a big "if."