BALTIMORE — By his own admission, Carlos Rodón used to be a bully.
For a two-year stretch, the left-hander was one of baseball’s most dominant and domineering starters, a broad-shouldered hoss who overpowered hitters with elevated fastballs and embarrassed them with sliders. The pitching equivalent of a battering ram, Rodón leaned on gas over guile. There was relatively little trickery involved; the big man was trying to blow it by you.
That strategy was straightforward and, for a while, incredibly effective. Rodón received Cy Young votes in 2021 with the White Sox and in 2022 with the Giants, posting the fourth-lowest ERA and third-most fWAR in MLB across that span. During those years, nobody in baseball collected more swing-and-misses on their fastball than Rodón.
That run earned the former No. 3 overall pick a hefty, six-year, $162 million contract with the powerhouse Yankees, a pact he signed ahead of the 2023 season.
In the time since, both Rodón and the sport he plays have changed dramatically.
In 2021, the average MLB fastball from a starting pitcher was 93.3 mph. That number has since risen to 94.1. Meanwhile, Rodón’s heater has gone in the opposite direction, from an average of 95.4 mph in 2021 down to 94.2 this season.
“I think now less is more — because I don’t really have more anymore,” he quipped in regard to his fastball. “Prior to [signing with the Yankees], it was more higher-effort fastballs, and I could just beat guys. It’s changed. Guys can just hit it now.”
The numbers back up that assertion. The league-wide contact rate on fastballs 96 mph or higher in the upper-third of the strike zone has risen from 65.1% in 2021 to 67.0% this season. It’s a sign that hitters have slowly adjusted to the jump in velocity. That trend is a result of better training, advanced game-planning and teams prioritizing bats that can catch up to high heat.
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During his first two seasons in pinstripes, Rodón was a casualty of that phenomenon.
A back injury delayed, then derailed his 2023; he finished that campaign with a brutal 6.85 ERA across just 14 starts. Things improved somewhat in 2024 — Rodón delivered league-average production across 32 starts — but he was far from the frontline monster the Yankees were paying him to be. It all culminated in a supremely disappointing start in Game 2 of last year’s World Series, a clunker in which Rodón surrendered four runs while recording just 10 outs.
Those frustrating performances further convinced Rodón that a transformation was necessary. He’d begun modifying his game the winter of 2023-24, but he struggled to implement those changes consistently last season. So last winter he leaned in harder. He opened himself up to even more feedback. He tinkered with new pitches. He focused on command over velocity.
This year, he has reaped the benefits, with a 3.04 ERA that ranks seventh in the American League. Rodón has provided the Yankees quality and stability in the wake of ace Gerrit Cole’s season-ending elbow surgery in March. He has slotted in brilliantly as a No. 2 starter behind free-agent acquisition Max Fried, whose presence, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake says, has also helped Rodón.
But it all began with a change in mentality.
“He opened his mind to there being a different version of him that he can become and continue forward and have a high level of success,” Blake explained. “He doesn’t have to anchor to this archetype of who he was — the power fastball-slider.”
This is not a dynamic unique to Rodón. The realities of aging apply to aces and normies alike. Turning 30 makes it more difficult to bounce back from a night out; it also makes it harder to throw 98 mph. A pitcher’s career is often dictated by whether or not he adapts to the inevitable diminishing of his natural abilities.
He can evolve, retire or — gasp — move to the bullpen.
These days, Rodón no longer relies so heavily on the four-seamer that was once the foundation of his game — he’s throwing the pitch nearly 20% less often than he did during his first year in the Bronx. In its place, Rodón has added a sinker to get ground balls against lefties while upping the usage of his changeup to stymie righties.
Last weekend against Baltimore, he induced 12 swing-and-misses on the changeup, his highest single-game total ever with the offering. Against lefties, Rodón is now throwing the sinker — a pitch he discovered by accident one week before Opening Day, when he was playing a game of catch with Fried — as often as the four-seamer. He has thrown 303 sinkers this season, and not a single one has resulted in a home run.
Another crucial element in Rodón’s reinvention has been the arrival of assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne, who was added to the big-league staff in December. Claiborne, 37, is a former big-league reliever who pitched out of the Yankees’ bullpen in 2013 and ‘14. A decade later, he looks more like a retired-linebacker-turned-bouncer, barrel-chested and cartoonishly imposing with a bushy, walrus mustache. Claiborne is a Texan’s Texan, overflowing with confidence, quick with a smile and endearingly direct. He struts around YankeeLand with the presence, assuredness and approachability of a small-town sheriff.
He is the perfect fit for Rodón.
“They can relate to each other,” Blake said. “Part of my hiring process for that role was: This is someone who’s gonna have to spend a lot of time every single day with Carlos. Someone’s got to be able to go toe-to-toe with him.”
“[Blake] joked half the reason they hired me was to chest up Rodón,” Claiborne remarked.
Said Rodón with a grin: “We don’t hide anything from each other, that’s for sure. We have a good relationship.”
That relationship has already paid huge dividends for the Yankees, who will likely begin their postseason journey next week at home in the wild-card round. Rodón and his 189 1/3 quality frames have been central to the club’s successful season. But nobody — and surely not Yankees fans — will remember his regular-season steadiness if he falters in October. The stakes, as they always are in the Bronx, are astronomical.
“I have a different arsenal now,” Rodón said, reflecting on his unfortunate World Series debut last autumn. “I’d probably pitch that game a lot different now.”
Now, thanks to his own evolution, he can.
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