Carlos Rodon sheds light on rough debut campaign with Yankees in 2023

Rodon signed a six-year, $162 million with the Yankees and while the first season was a slog, he is looking for a huge step forward in 2024. He even acknowledges that he can be better as he is reflecting on the miscues and missteps from last season and applying what Rodon learned into this upcoming stint with New York.

“I know I can be better,” Rodón said. “I wanted to perform better. All of us want these things. Sometimes they just don’t happen, so now it’s about how we analyze that and how do we reflect on that? Last year was last year. It’s one of those things that I do want to put behind me, and I will still reflect on it. Like what happened? Why did it go this way? Hopefully we found answers.”

What exactly went wrong for Rodon is hard to explain with the simplest way to put it is that he was off on his mechanics, allowing hitters to break him down and have success. Even besides the physical attributes that come with playing baseball, Rodon said to The Athletic that “pitching is an art of deception.”

“I would say the stuff was pretty close,” Rodón said. “Pitching is an art of deception. How you deceive a hitter with usage and how you move matters. Obviously their plan of attack, they knew what I was doing. It was pretty obvious with fastballs up and sliders off of it. I think they just caught on to what I was doing. I just feel like the command was a little wonky at times, I was more crisp years before with what I was doing.”

Rodon appreciative of his family as he’s working through struggles

Besides practicing and getting better on the field, improving the results also deals with a player’s mental state outside of baseball. What has helped ground Rodon was his family that furthered the process of reflecting on the season and knowing what to get better at.

“I’m grateful to have an unbelievable wife, kids and family, that support system that doesn’t really care what I do on the field,” Rodón said. “My wife is the biggest Yankees fan. She’s the biggest Carlos Rodón fan. She keeps up with all of the stuff. She’s a super fan, no doubt. I wouldn’t have it any other way. She wants to win as badly as all of us do in this room.”

Besides Rodon, the Yankees are looking to have short-term memory and forget last season where they missed the playoffs, finishing 82-80 which put them fourth in the AL East. Like a typical New York season, they will have high expectations going into 2024 as Opening Day for them starts March 28 where they start a four-game series against the Houston Astros.