Carlos Rodon built himself a reputation of being a disappointment, a bad investment, and a pitcher who lacked resilience through his first two seasons in New York.
Those labels should be discarded, if they hadn’t been already.
The 2025 All-Star came up big yet again for the Yankees on Thursday night, allowing just one earned run through six innings to set the Yanks up for an 8-4 win and take an important series in Houston. Rodon’s latest encouraging start was the sixth straight outing in which he allowed two runs or less.
Not only did Rodon quiet the Houston bats for his league-leading 16th win of the season, he did it despite dealing with all kinds of adversity, particularly in his final inning of work as he neared 100 pitches. A flare to Ryan McMahon was ruled to be dropped by third base umpire Brian Walsh, even after replay seemed to clearly show that McMahon secured the pop-up and dropped the ball on the transfer. Then, on what appeared to be a sure double play, Ben Rice couldn’t handle the throw from Jose Caballero, extending the inning. But Rodon, often criticized for crumbling as soon as something doesn’t go his way, bore down and retired the side to keep the Yanks in front.
The reality is, this version of Rodon has been here for nearly the entire season. Since enduring a rough three-start stretch in April, he has pitched to a 2.75 ERA in his last 25 starts, striking out 152 batters against 57 walks in 147.1 innings of work. In a year where the Yanks lost their ace in Gerrit Cole, were without Rookie of the Year winner Luis Gil for months, and lost Clarke Schmidt to Tommy John surgery, Rodon has been a stabilizing force alongside Max Fried, who has had his own stretch of struggles in his debut season with New York, while Rodon has mainly thrived in 2025.
Sure, Rodon’s introduction in pinstripes was a flat-out nightmare after signing a $162 million deal before the 2023 season. He was also battling injury to start a season in which he was relocated across the country and getting used to a new organization and new surroundings. He certainly didn’t handle his struggles well in that rough season, which has been well documented, but Rodon came back in 2024 and posted a solid 3.96 ERA across 32 starts. His playoff introduction was soured by an admittedly too-hyped-up version of Rodon, but he sought advice from others who had done it before in October and followed that up with six innings of one-run ball in his first ALCS start, helping the Yanks to a big win in game one.
Rodon’s second season was far from perfect, but the improvements he has made in terms of his performance and mental resilience is undeniable. He leads the league in wins, starts, and hits per nine innings, and is up there with the league leaders in strikeouts. Regardless of how his first two years went, Rodon is earning the trust of fans that he will be in the right frame of mind and ready to deliver for the Yankees come October.
Full trust in Rodon won't be earned until he translates his current level of efficiency to the playoffs. But he is creating belief that he will be capable once his chance comes, and looking back, his last playoff run - though not perfect - showed signs that he was already trending back towards being a reliable starter.