The Fall-off of Carlos Rodón

in 2022 Giants pitcher Carlos rodon was having a career year that season in 31 starts in 178 Innings he pitched to a 2.88 ra as one of the top starters in the game his 33.4% strikeout rate was among the best in the game as well by most pitching metrics he was phenomenal when the Giants trotted him out there every 5 days they knew that they were going to get a really good chance at winning whatever game rodon didn't allow a lot of runs and struck out a ton of batters while also not allowing very many base runners simply put he was just one of the best pitchers in baseball for the 2022 season the Yankees saw this and having had some rotation troubles in 2022 themselves signed him to a contract over 6 years and worth $162 million $27 million annually to a guy who had proved himself as a very dependable arm 2 years in a row at the time this seemed like a very good deal for the Yankees who despite winning 9 9 games in 2022 definitely had some issues to address after all rodon had only recently turned 30 and pitchers usually age better than position players do this really did seem like a foolproof contract as rodon had had very good peripheral stats in addition to his basic stats with the Giants there really wasn't that much run for error in this contract Carlos rodan's Yankees career got off to an awful start when in his first spring training game he allowed five runs in just two innings in including two home runs shortly after he went on the injured list with a forearm strain in his pitching arm this kind of injury often leads to Tommy John's surgery in some pitchers however in rodan's case he luckily did not need surgery but did Miss over half the season he made his first official Yankee start on July 7th versus the Cubs in that game he went five in the third Innings with two strikeouts while also surrendering two earned runs pretty good considering that it was his first start since spring training his next two starts against the Ro and Angels did not go as well he first gave up four runs in Colorado and then six against the Angels after that he had a good start against the Mets but followed that up with two bad starts versus the Rays and then the Astros at home in which he allowed nine total runs and six and two3 innings rodon had had a few good starts after that but notably never had a start where he went scoreless for a guy making well over $25 million a year that's definitely not what you want his 2023 season was going terribly before his start in Kansas City but versus one of the worst offenses in MLB that year rodon allowed eight runs without recording a single out which I'm fairly certain has to be a record his first year in pin stripes went about as bad as it possibly could have he pitched to a dreadful 6.85 erra in 14 starts and after posting a 33% strikeout rate in 20122 he posted a 22% strikeout rate in 2023 he walked more batters and allowed an average exit velocity of 91.6 mph which is terrible he was getting hit hard wasn't striking out enough batters and walked way too many guys this really came out of nowhere when you look at the rest of his career both rhon and the Yankees had a catastrophic season to say the absolute least coming into this year the Yankees and rhon had aspirations for a better season and at first things were going great basically as good as could be asked for rhon was pitching very well and definitely like a guy who gets paid 27 million a year he had successfully navigated very potent offenses such as the Astros and the twins multiple times through a start on June 10th versus the Royals he pitched to an excellent 2.93 ra he was walking less batters and had slightly fixed his hard contact problem even though rodon had seemingly pitched well on the surface the underlying stats said that he was due for some massive regression and unfortunately that is exactly what's been happening to him these last few weeks while he was better than last year in terms of allowing hard contact he was still below average the problem started on June 15th in Fenway Park rodon was already a flyball pitcher and now that he was getting hit hard this led to a lot of extra base hits the Red Sox tagged him for five runs in five innings rodon had had a few bad starts earlier in the season so for the moment this wasn't such a big deal every pitcher has off days at some point in the season but was a big deal however was when his struggles carried into next week's start against the Braves in Yankee Stadium rhon could only pitch three and 2/3 Innings before being pulled he allowed three home runs and the Yankees lost 8 to1 to make it five losses in their last six games in Toronto on June 27th rodon was destroyed yet again the Blue Jays had 10 hits off him including two three-run home runs from George Springer of all people on July 3rd against the Reds he only allowed three hits which looks great on paper but two of those hits turned out to be home runs they proved to be the difference as the Yankees lost 3 to2 to continue their stretch of really really bad baseball Ron's most recent start didn't Inspire much confidence either as he once again got shelled this time in Tampa Bay he allowed four runs in four Innings while the Rays averaged an exit velocity of 94.1 mph on their batted balls Carlos rodon has had a very rough go of things lately this season in his last five starts he is pitched to a terrible 10.57 erra while allowing eight home runs and 36 total hits what was once a good season for him has turned into nothing short of a nightmare that lately has actually been worse than his 2023 season with four more years left on his contract Carlos rodon has plenty of time to figure it out and he's definitely proved he can do it before all that he really has to do is just stay healthy and Pitch like he has before definitely like And subscribe if you haven't yet and thanks for watching