Carlos Rodón is advancing in his recovery from left elbow surgery and expects to be back on a big league mound early in the regular season, the Yankees left-hander told the YES Network on Tuesday.
“It’s just one of those things that just becomes part of the day when you’re pitching,” Rodón said. “There’s plenty of guys that are banged up, competing out there. There’s not much room to make an excuse. My job is to go out there and compete and eat as many innings as I can, and give my team the best chance to win.”
Rodón, 33, is coming off a 2025 season in which he registered career highs in wins (18), starts (33) and innings pitched (195 1/3), posting an 18-9 record with a 3.09 ERA and 203 strikeouts.
The Yankees won both of his postseason starts, though they had to overcome his early exit in Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Blue Jays, a contest remembered for Aaron Judge’s game-tying home run off the left-field foul pole.
Rodón accomplished it with a more varied repertoire than in previous seasons, acknowledging, “The elbow had some say in that.”
With diminished fastball velocity, Rodón used his heater less, dropping from 49.4 percent usage in 2024 to 41.8 percent in 2025. He increased his reliance on his slider (26 percent to 28.4 percent) and changeup (12.9 percent to 16.2 percent), while incorporating a sinker he threw 9.6 percent of the time.
He trimmed his use of a curveball (8.3% to 3.8%) and all but abandoned his cutter (3.5% to 0.2%).
“I had to learn to pitch a little more,” Rodón said. “I’m grateful for the staff around me, our training staff and everybody that had a part in that to get me through the year.”
The Yankees’ rotation could be thin to begin the season, with Rodón, Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt all on the injured list.
Of that group, Rodón appears the closest to returning. He said Tuesday he expects to make some Grapefruit League starts during the spring, though he’ll likely be pitching in Minor League rehab games when the Yankees open the season.
“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,” Rodón said. “Obviously it’s not going to be part of the Opening Day rotation, but hopefully it’s a few weeks. Whatever it is, I just want to be 100 percent and be able to pitch in every game that I can.”
In the meantime, Rodón said fans should be “tremendously excited” about Cam Schlittler, who burst onto the big league scene with a triple-digit fastball last summer and pitched the game of his life to seal the AL Wild Card Series against the Red Sox.
“Hopefully this year he truly becomes a pitcher and learns how to not always rely on that fastball,” Rodón said. “I think he’s got plenty of other weapons that I don’t think everybody knows about, and I’m sure he’ll be featuring those this year. He’s got the opportunity to become a very great pitcher in this game for a long time.”
It has been an eventful offseason for Rodón, who was inducted into the North Carolina State Ring of Honor by his alma mater in November, alongside Mike Caldwell, Dan Plesac, and Trea Turner.
Rodón will also receive the Joan Payson/Shannon Forde Award for Community Service from the New York Baseball Writers’ Association of America in January, honoring the foundation work he and his wife, Ashley, have done with their Willow Grant to support couples facing infertility and pregnancy loss.
“It’s a great honor,” Rodón said. “My wife puts a lot of time into this, and so do I. We were just working on giving out grants and calling people, and taking videos telling people they received grants. The work never stops. We’re just constantly doing stuff, trying to help as many people as we can.”
