By all accounts, New York Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon is in a much better place this season than where he was at this time of the year in 2023.
The spring of 2023 brought forearm and back issues to him, problems than ended up derailing his season in more than one way.
He had a 6.85 ERA last year in just 64.1 innings: both the performance and the low number of innings stem from the injury issues.
He is healthy now, though, and his first spring outing yielded five strikeouts and only one run allowed in 2.2 frames.
This week, on Friday, Rodon threw a live batting practice session in the Yankees’ camp.
It’s fair to say it didn’t go as planned, but he is not worried and actually praised his teammates for having an excellent day against him.
“Carlos Rodon allowed four home runs in a live batting practice session today — Josh Breaux, Agustin Ramirez, Ben Rice and Jose Rojas all took him deep. ‘I’d rather give them up to our guys,’ he said. ‘All those guys are pretty good. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t,'” Yankees insider Bryan Hoch tweeted, with Rodon’s quotes.
Carlos Rodon allowed four home runs in a live batting practice session today — Josh Breaux, Agustin Ramirez, Ben Rice and Jose Rojas all took him deep.
"I'd rather give them up to our guys," he said. "All those guys are pretty good. They wouldn't be here if they weren't."
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) March 1, 2024
The fact that none of those hitters are expected to be major leaguers when camp breaks is at least a little concerning, but it’s live batting practice in early March: he was probably trying something, or not going max effort.
It’s important to contextualize things to not panic.
His answer, if anything, shows maturity: part of the learning process from last year involved better reactions to adversity (he didn’t do well on that front in 2023), and this proves he has made strides.
As long as he is fully healthy, Rodon will probably be fine.
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