Carlos

Rodón

Rodón, who had a procedure in October to shave a bone spur and remove loose bodies from his elbow, thinks he’ll be back pitching in games in spring training, though he knows he’ll open up on the injured list. “I’ll be a little behind. I’m not sure exactly when my first start will be, but I’m hoping sooner rather than later,” he said.

We already knew that the left-hander was unlikely to be ready for the start of the season, but now we have a more firm timeline. Given Rodón‘s lengthy injury history, we would assume he doesn’t debut until May. He would present a major risk/reward for fantasy managers who are willing to roll the dice after he had bone spurs removed from his elbow this off-season

Aaron Boone suggested that he’d be delayed a few weeks entering the year. Being still four months away from the start of spring training, bone spur surgery seems like something Rodón could recover from and still be ready for Opening Day. Still, there’s not much harm in playing it safe in April. This could quiet any talk about the Yankees moving Luis Gil to the pen next spring. As of right now, Gil and Will Warren are the third and fourth starters behind Max Fried and Cam Schlittler.

Rodón gave up nearly as many runs as outs recorded in an unexpected implosion at the worst possible moment for New York with their season on the line. The veteran southpaw found himself in hot water right away as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. took him deep for a two-run homer in the opening frame before things snowballed completely out of control in a calamitous four-run third inning that featured three consecutive run-scoring singles that chased him from the contest. He struck out two and also issued two walks in the abbreviated 67-pitch outing.

Rodón, who allowed three runs over six innings in Wednesday’s Game 2 win over the Red Sox earlier this week, will follow Luis Gil and Max Fried at the outset of the best-of-five series. It’s not official yet, but we’re assuming it would be rookie Cam Schlittler drawing the starting assignment for Game 4, if the best-of-five series gets there.

Rodón was handed an early two-run lead and was unable to make it stand up as Trevor Story single-handedly kept Boston in this one with a third-inning two-run single and a sixth-inning solo homer. The 32-year-old lefty managed to work into the middle innings, piling up six strikeouts and handing out three free passes. He walked Nate Eaton on four pitches and uncorked a wild pitch that put the potential go-ahead run in scoring position. He was lifted from the contest in favor of reliever Fernando Cruz after hitting Jarren Duran to put two on with nobody out.

Rodón gave up four hits, walked one and struck out five. The 32-year-old left-hander put the finishing touches on arguably the best season of his career. Rodón set career-highs in wins (18) and innings (195 1/3). With three games left in the season, he’ll finish with a 3.09 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 203 strikeouts. Rodón is lined up to start Game 2 of the playoffs.

The Yankees will clinch a playoff birth with a win on Tuesday against the White Sox, so they appear to be reconfiguring their rotation for the AL Wild Card round. With Max Fried starting on Wednesday, he will be on regular rest for Game 1 of the playoff series, and Rodón will now be available for Game 2 on regular rest.

Rodón won his career-high 17th game with his fifth straight quality start. The streak would be eight in a row if he hadn’t come up one out short in one of his wins last month. He’ll try to go to 3-0 in three starts against Baltimore back at home next weekend.

Rodón surrendered five hits, including a fifth-inning solo homer to Brooks Lee. He finished with four strikeouts and only issued one walk. He’ll square off against the Orioles on Saturday to close out a two-start week in his penultimate regular-season outing.