GROUND BREAKING: Carlos Rodon reveals shocking news about Yankees
The New York Yankees started the 2024 season strong but have struggled over the past few weeks. The upcoming All-Star break will provide a much-needed rest for the team. Starting pitcher Carlos Rodon has particularly faced difficulties this season.
Rodon currently holds a 4.63 ERA across 103 innings pitched. He seems to understand the underlying reason for his underperformance.
“I really like throwing fastballs. I do, but that’s starting to hurt me now,” Rodon said, via Gary Phillips of nydailynews.com. “There’s definitely some pride in throwing a hard fastball. But to make the fastball better, I have to change the usage and use other pitches so it disguises it.”
Hitting a fastball is challenging, but many batters often sit on fastballs and react to breaking pitches. Even if a pitcher throws over 100 MPH, big league hitters can still catch up to the heat.
Rodon, a two-time All-Star before joining the Yankees, also discussed hitters’ abilities to connect on velocity in today’s game.
“The game has evolved. These guys hit velocity now,” Rodon said. “They know how to get to fastballs up in the zone. They train for that. They train for me specifically. They attack the tendencies I use, like how often I use a fastball and where I throw it, how often I use the slider and where I throw it. So I have to make the adjustment myself, and I may need to make it faster to be successful and give my team a chance to win.”
Carlos Rodon’s 2024 season with Yankees
As mentioned earlier, Carlos Rodon has a 4.63 ERA so far in 2024. His struggles extend beyond this statistic.
Rodon’s fastball usage rate is indeed a concern. His current approach isn’t effective, as evidenced by the highest hard-hit rate of his career at 43.9 percent, according to Baseball Reference. This means batters are hitting the ball harder against Rodon than ever before.
When Rodon made back-to-back All-Star teams in 2021 and 2022, he posted strikeout rates over 33 percent. In 2024, however, he is striking out only 23.9 percent of batters. Although his walk rate is a respectable 6.8 percent, much lower than his career 8.8 percent, this hasn’t compensated for his other struggles.
There’s a difference between simply throwing the ball over the plate and executing quality strikes. While Rodon has managed to stay in the zone, his execution has been less than perfect. As he mentioned, relying less on the fastball and mixing in other pitches might lead to better overall results.
Will Rodon bounce back?
Carlos Rodon was one of MLB’s top pitchers during the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants. Despite his immense struggles in limited action in 2023, those issues were largely attributed to injuries. Yankees fans were optimistic about Rodon rebounding in 2024.
However, Rodon has yet to find his form this season. The silver lining is that it’s only July, giving him a couple of months to get back on track before the playoffs. The Yankees undoubtedly hope he regains his groove sooner rather than later, as making a serious playoff run is challenging when one of your best players is underperforming at an alarming rate.