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Why Carlos Rodon Was Not Worth Gambling On

Derek McAdam

By Derek McAdam

December 16, 2022

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The Yankees are looking to bolster their starting rotation by bringing in Carlos Rodon, a southpaw who has spent most of his career playing for the White Sox, while spending the previous season in San Francisco.


Rodon is likely seen as a replacement, and potential upgrade, to Jameson Taillon, who signed a four-year contract with the Chicago Cubs. He gives the Yankees another left-handed starting option in addition to Nestor Cortes, Jr., while also being the potential No. 2 starter.


Here are a few reasons why the Yankees should have stayed away from Rodon.


First, let’s look at the previous long-term contracts for pitchers that the Yankees have made bids for, or actually been successful in signing. Patrick Corbin was a starter the Yankees had inquired about before the 2019 season. While Corbin had one good season for the Nationals in his inaugural season, he has been a disaster over the past three seasons. The Nationals still have Corbin on the books for another two seasons.


While Gerrit Cole has had some great moments with the Yankees, he has gotten progressively worse as his tenure with the Yankees continues. He gave up a career-high 33 home runs in 2022 and was not the ace the squad needed him to be throughout the season, especially considering the $36 million he is being paid annually. The Yankees still have another six seasons of Cole on the books, and no, he is not going to opt-out after the 2024 season.


The list can go on, even with pitchers that the Yankees did not have an interest in, including David Price, Zach Greinke, and Stephen Strasburg. One of the few contracts over $200 million for a pitcher that may have actually worked out was Max Scherzer’s tenure with the Washington Nationals. Clayton Kershaw also had some solid years with the Dodgers during his $215 million contract, but also had some injury concerns.


As for Rodon, he is coming off two consecutive seasons of having a sub-3.00 ERA, one of which was in Chicago while the other was in San Francisco. Rodon’s 2021 ERA was 2.37, but he only made 24 starts compared to his 31 last season, where the ERA spiked a little to 2.88. Either way, there may be some legitimate concerns.


San Francisco is known for being a pitcher-friendly ballpark and while Rodon likely took advantage of that park, Yankee Stadium is completely different. Yankee Stadium is a hitter-friendly ballpark, especially for left-handed batters. While Rodon might be able to limit some of the left-handed power in the Bronx, since he is a left-hander, he’s going from one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks to one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks. This may explain why Sonny Gray and Frankie Montas, both of whom came from Oakland, have not had success in the Bronx.


While the Yankees need a starter that can help get them deep in the playoffs, Rodon is not the answer. This team is not necessarily close to winning a World Series, and while Rodon could help their odds of getting there, there are still plenty of other areas the Yankees must first address.

45 de comentarii


Membru necunoscut
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Membru necunoscut
17 dec. 2024
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jjw49
16 dec. 2022

For all the reasons mentioned Yankees had no choice but to sign Rodon who is very very good. I watched a lot of his games this past year and his real out pitch is the letter high fast ball which overwhelms hitters and as long as he maintains velocity he will be extremely effective in Yankee Stadium. How long he maintains his advantage is the 27million dollar question?

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jjw49
17 dec. 2022
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Boras squeezed Yankees for the extra year however given his injury history and fact that Yankees only wanted to go 5yrs how reasonable is it to expect Rodon to give Yankees full value over the length of this contract? I don't believe they will get the results they signed up for. Keep your fingers crossed that his velocity will be undiminished over the next 2-3years or that the coaches will improve his change and curve... A lot of reasonable assumptions? 6years for a pitcher like Rodon a lot can happen and usually its not all good.

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Cary Greene
Cary Greene
16 dec. 2022

With respect to Derrick's stance, Gerrit Cole isn't the pitcher the Yankees thought he was when they signed him. Quite frankly, he was cheating when he got his big payday and it's hard to sweep that under the surface. When you peel back the onion on Cole, you can really see what a vastly different pitcher he is now and its primarily because he's not getting the spin, the elevation and the run on many of his go-to pitches.


Obviously, Cole plays off his fastball, which he's actually gained velocity on since his Houston days. Cole's 4-seamer now averages 97.8-mph, up from 97.1-mph. His spin-rate is still very similar to his Houston spin rates with this pitch. Why then are…



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Cary Greene
Cary Greene
16 dec. 2022
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Great insights Andy and cool article as well. I'd like to submit a request for the mailbag, with apologies if it's redundant. I've looked over the heat maps on all of Cole's pitchers. He has an all-world signal caller in Jose Trevino behind the dish most of the time and his personal caddy, Kyle Higashioka at other times. His heat maps are concerning. He's not locating ANY of his pitches where they really need to be and his Barrel% is skyrocketing. Can we get a handle on what the heck has really gone wrong with him. I say, "Spider Tack-less" is the problem because I see dramatically different spin rates on his secondary offerings and wild heat maps. To me,…

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cpogo0502
16 dec. 2022

The Yankees had no other choice. Adding deGrom and Verlander would have been a massive overpay; one because of age and the other because of chronic injury. I'm content. Now we wait for additional moves for left field and bullpen depth.

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Cary Greene
Cary Greene
16 dec. 2022
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Leutge being 36 doesn't matter. He's an offspeed pitcher and he's turned into a good one at that. It's not like he lives off an Aroldis Chapman type fastball and has shown signs of clear decline for several years - like old Chappy did.

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