Command issues in a pitcher who underwent elbow surgery in the offseason in just his second start of the year are hardly unexpected.
But through his first two outings, Carlos Rodón hasn’t looked like the All-Star he was in 2025 with the Yankees.
After walking five batters in just 4 ¹/₃ innings in his season debut against the Brewers last Sunday, the left-hander was far from sharp in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Mets at Citi Field.
And while the three walks — and three runs — in just 3 ²/₃ innings were not pretty, Rodón made his worst mistake of the night as a fielder.
He struck out Brett Baty and Luis Torrens to start the third inning before Carson Benge doubled to right.
A walk to the slumping Bo Bichette followed, as did a walk to the ever-dangerous Juan Soto.
Then things got wild.
Rodón airmailed a pitch to Mark Vientos, with the ball going straight off the brick wall behind home plate and bouncing high back toward the lefty, who caught the ball and compounded his mistake by trying to get Benge at home.
His toss to Austin Wells, though, was also wild, and Wells had no chance.
The error allowed Bichette to score all the way from second and Soto to advance to third.
Suddenly, the Yankees went from ahead by a run to trailing 2-1.
Rodón got Vientos to ground out to end the inning, but a two-out walk to Austin Slater in the fourth haunted Rodón, as it extended the inning and allowed Baty to come up and hammer a 111-mph double over Aaron Judge in right field to drive in Slater and make it 3-1.
Again, the fact that Rodón has been rusty in some of his minor league rehab starts and his first two with the Yankees after having surgery to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur in his left elbow isn’t a disaster.
But until he flashes the form he showed in 2025, questions will linger as the Yankees also wait for Gerrit Cole to return from the Tommy John surgery he underwent during spring training of last year.
The fast start to the season the Yankees got off to, as well as the mediocre state of the rest of the American League, has given them the luxury to survive without Rodón and Cole.
Cam Schlittler has emerged as a Cy Young candidate in his first full season in the majors.
And Ryan Weathers and Will Warren have also pitched well.
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But with Max Fried out with a left elbow bone bruise, the Yankees will be looking to Rodón to carry some of the load.
They entered Saturday with the third-best rotation ERA in the majors (3.09), trailing only Atlanta and Tampa Bay.
The Yankees might be able to point to Rodón retiring eight of the first nine batters he faced Saturday — and striking out six in the outing — but it wasn’t enough to beat a Mets team that entered in disarray after losing Clay Holmes to a fractured leg Friday.
