NEW YORK — Carlos Rodón was not supposed to start Opening Day. Coming into 2025, the Yankees planned on a Gerrit Cole-Max Fried one-two punch atop the rotation, and Rodón would slot into the third game of the regular season. Maybe even the fourth game behind reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil. Rodón was not in the mix for the Game 1 start.
Plans change, often due to injury in this game, and Rodón found himself on the mound Opening Day because Cole needed Tommy John surgery and Gil went down with a lat strain in spring training. Cole’s injury happened late enough in the spring that lining Fried up for Opening Day would have been too disruptive to his pitching schedule, so Rodón got the nod instead.
“It’s good to be back,” Rodón said after Thursday’s Opening Day win (NY 4, MIL 2). “It’s been a little while, so it was nice to have the old faithful behind us again and to hear everyone in the stadium. It was electric as always here in the Bronx.”
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Rodón turned in a strong Opening Day performance, holding the Brewers to one run on a Vinny Capra solo homer in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and did not allow a runner to reach third base other than the homer. For a pitcher who has run hot and cold in his two years as a Yankee, Rodón looked the part of an Opening Day starter Thursday.
“He was really in command of his emotions,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “If he does that, he’s capable of that every time.”
When the Yankees signed Rodón to a six-year contract worth $162 million in December 2022, he was essentially a two-pitch pitcher. He threw four-seam fastballs up in the zone and sliders below the zone, and he threw those two pitches 92% of the time. Rodón was the most extreme two-pitch starter in the sport. It worked in 2022 with the Giants. Not so much in 2023 or 2024 with the Yankees.
On Opening Day, Rodón threw six different pitches, including three at least 20% of the time (four-seamer, slider, changeup) and two others at least 10% of the time (sinker, curveball). He also mixed in a cutter. Rodón has, for lack of a better term, become a kitchen sink pitcher, not that he’s a soft-tosser. His fastball sat comfortably in the 94-95 mph range on Thursday.
Rodón’s evolution started last spring, after he pitched to a 6.85 ERA in 14 starts around injury in 2023. He added a cutter, though he did not lean on it heavily during the regular season. In June, Rodón reintroduced his curveball, a pitch he rarely used early in his career, and also a new changeup. By the postseason, he threw the curveball and changeup nearly 30% of the time combined.
The changeup, in particular, was not just a show-me pitch either. No changeup missed bats at a higher rate in 2024. Here is the 2024 changeup whiff rate leaderboard (minimum 400 changeups thrown):
- Carlos Rodón: 49.5%
- Cole Ragans: 47.8%
- Tarik Skubal: 46.2%
- Reese Olson: 42.9%
- Nick Martinez: 41.6%
(MLB average: 30.8%)
“[The slider is] still going to be his calling card, but I think the changeup is really good now,” Boone said. “The ability to slow it down with the curveball and then introducing that sinker. He’s capable of doing that and to have real longevity in this game as a pitcher is to be able to evolve and adapt and add and subtract from your arsenal.”
Boone is right, the slider is still Rodón’s go-to pitch — Brewers hitters swung 15 times against his slider and missed with nine — but he is far from a two-pitch pitcher now. He threw 10 sinkers Thursday after throwing 10 sinkers combined from 2020-24. It was never a feature pitch for him. Until, suddenly, now it is. “The sinker helps. Gets them off the four-seamer,” Rodón said Thursday.
Here are Rodón’s pitch locations on Opening Day:
Baseball Savant
The deeper arsenal forces hitters to cover a wider velocity range — Rodón threw a pitch as slow as 78.6 mph (curveball) and as hard as 96.3 mph (four-seamer) on Thursday — and also more of the zone. The Brewers saw velocity up and on both sides of the plate, and soft stuff down and on both sides of the plate. Hitters can no longer zero in on the fastball up and slider down.
“The scouting report on me the last few years has been four-seams up in the zone, sliders below,” Rodón explained Thursday. “The plan as a hitter was to cover the fastball and react to sliders. The rounding of the repertoire and adding a few other pitches that move different and the change of speeds, it makes it less predictable. Especially the usage portion of it.”
Rodón’s Yankees tenure started about as poorly as possible in 2023. Things went better in 2024, though he still had ups and downs. The four-seam/sinker approach that landed him his $162 million contract wasn’t working anymore, so Rodón began to incorporate his curveball and changeup last year. Now the sinker is becoming more of a weapon, too. He’s a very different pitcher.
It’s not wrong to say that getting the Opening Day start had more to do with Cole and Gil getting hurt and Fried not being lined up than Rodón earning it. He looked deserving on Thursday, though. With Cole out for the year, the Yankees will need to see the Opening Day version of Rodón more than once every few starts. The wider arsenal puts him in his best position to succeed as a Yankee.
“He’s capable of that right there and more sometimes,” Boone said Thursday. “I just want him to really focus on his job every single day, and that’s not just the day he pitches. Now, it starts the process when he’s out there in [five days]. I just want him to focus on that. And if he does that, the results will handle themselves.”
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