KANSAS CITY – Pitching in a city famous for its barbeque, Carlos Rodón looked cooked in a hurry on Friday night.
The pitcher, hoping to conclude a disastrous, injury-riddled campaign on a high note, delivered his worst start yet in a 12-5 Yankees loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. In fact, Rodón didn’t record an out over 35 pitches before the Yankees went to their bullpen in the first inning.
He called the performance “terrible” while adding that his debut Yankees has been, “Pretty disappointing. Just not much else to say about it.”
Ultimately, the southpaw was charged with eight earned runs after allowing six hits, two walks and a homer on Friday. According to the YES Network’s James Smyth, Rodón tied the record for the most runs surrendered in a start without recording an out since at least 1901. Five others are on the list.
In addition to not logging an out, Rodón turned his back on pitching coach Matt Blake during a mound visit. Aaron Boone said that he’d like to see “better mound presence” from the pitcher, who spent some time in the manager’s closed office after talking to reporters.
Carlos Rodon turning his back to Matt Blake and gesturing him to go back to the dugout while Blake was trying to talk to him was certainly something pic.twitter.com/HO5RirjenD
— Addison (@YankeeWRLD) September 30, 2023
Boone said that his “first take” was that Rodón was being disrespectful to Blake, but he wanted to “hear everything around it.”
“We want better mound presence there, but also, guy’s competing his ass off, and it’s been a tough year for him,” Boone said. “He’s trying to figure it out. He wants to do well. So there’s also some grace in it’s hard, it’s heavy. But he’s right back on the bench at the end of the game, and, we don’t have any issue with him as far as how he’s going about it, how he’s getting after it, and his care factor. We just gotta get him going consistently. That’s going to be the challenge.”
Rodón, who also caused a stir when he blew a kiss to heckling fans earlier this year, explained his body language in a similar fashion while adding, “It wasn’t good.”
“I was just frustrated,” he said. “[Blake] was trying to come out and help, and it was kind of one of those things where it was just like obviously frustrated with the situation.”
Asked if he thought turning his back could have been seen as disrespectful, Rodón responded, “I’m sure it was. I’m sure it wasn’t great. Definitely not the best move there. Shouldn’t happen. I was frustrated with myself and my performance. Really embarrassing, and then doing that with Matt, coming out, trying to help me, I turned my back. I was just not in the right mind, that’s for sure. That’s on me.”
Rodón went on to say that he had not spoken to Blake since the incident, as he wanted to “cool off” and give his coach some time.
“I’m sure he’s not very happy with me right now,” Rodón acknowledged. He entered Boone’s office shortly thereafter.
With that, Rodón’s first season with the Yankees ended with a 6.85 ERA. He made just 14 starts after battling forearm, back and hamstring injuries. Boone, when discussing the lefty’s struggles, has noted all the stops and starts Rodón has had to deal with have made it hard for him to find his rhythm this year.
Rodón, however, didn’t want to subscribe to such reasoning on Friday.
“I’m not gonna make excuses about starting off the season with an injury. My job is to show up and compete when I’m available. Unfortunately, that was halfway through the season,” he said, as the forearm and back injuries delayed his Yankees debut. “There were some okay starts sprinkled in, but most of it was pretty bad.”
Rodón had mostly pitched better since the hamstring issue in August, but the self-critical hurler knows he didn’t come close to living up to expectations after inking a six-year, $162 million contract last winter. The Yankees signed Rodón fresh off of two consecutive All-Star nods with the White Sox and Giants. The idea was that he and Gerrit Cole would provide a dominant one-two punch and put the Yankees over the top in their pursuit of a championship.
Cole likely won himself the first Cy Young award of his career, but Rodón earned Cy Yuck consideration as the Yankees spent most of the season in fourth or last place. They did not make the playoffs.
With five years left on his contract and a $27 million yearly salary, Rodón needs to return to form in 2024.
“There’s no doubt in the talent,” Boone said. “We’ve seen enough this year that we know that we can get that out. But obviously, we gotta have a good winter with him and come ready to go in spring training and hopefully have this year be one of those things that throws a log on the fire and motivates you.
“Frankly, in the last month, we have seen [the talent] a lot. We have seen that kind of electricity that he has when he’s going. I can’t necessarily explain tonight, other than he just did not have a lot of stuff behind it.”
On Friday, Rodón’s velocity was noticeably down, as it was in his last start. He didn’t have an explanation for that, but he insisted there was nothing physically wrong with him.
The Yankees, hindered by injuries all season, also need Rodón to stay healthy, but that hasn’t always been easy for him. Last season was the first time he ever made at least 30 starts in a season. He set a career-high with 178 innings pitched as well.
While Rodón’s first year in pinstripes was concerning, he has shown elite stuff before. He went 27-13 with a 2.67 ERA and 422 strikeouts over 55 starts and 310.2 innings from 2021-2022.
Rodón will be determined to show that that’s who he truly is in 2024. If he can’t, the Yankees could be in for another rough season.
“Hopefully, he’ll give them lots of reasons to cheer,” Boone said when asked about fans who are surely worried about Rodón. “You can quiet those things and turn those things around in a hurry with consistent performance. And that’s what we gotta get to.”
When the season ends on Sunday, Rodón will look to get away for a while. He coincidentally has a place near Kansas City where he and his wife like to hunt, and that is where he will go for some alone time to get his mind off baseball.
From there, he’ll begin his offseason work back home in Indiana. He said that refining his movements on the mound will be a priority over the winter and during spring training.
All the while, he’ll be working to prove that this season was a fluke.
“We’re definitely looking forward to next year,” Rodón said. “That’s for sure.”
