Los Encounters

 

I honestly can't be too displeased with Carlos Rodon's Yankees run so far. He's missed time, but considering his White Sox years we knew this was a possibility. When he has been healthy, he's been spot-on, with a 3.88 ERA over 4 seasons, a 42-29 record, and 532 strikeouts. This year, through 13 starts, has been prime Rodon, with a 3.09 ERA, 5 wins, 70 Ks and a 1.2 WAR. Rodon is still the same deep-game, hard throwing strikeout artist he has been at his peak, and he's done exactly what we've needed him to do. What's wild has been seeing him adapt to a mid-rotation role in the wake of Schlittler and Fried's emergence. Now he's not even the #2 guy anymore, he's just one flamethrower in a rotation of several. But when your #4 guy is Carlos Rodon, you're still doing pretty well.

The Yankees' rotation is the reason why the Rays are getting scared about now. Schlittler-Cole-Fried-Rodon-Warren is as strong as we imagined it would be, and everyone complaining in February that we didn't do enough was forgetting how good the rotation would look at season's end. Ryan Weathers will be back in a long relief role, as will [I'm guessing] Clarke Schmidt, Cole and Rodon had their rehab periods and jumped right in, and Schlittler and Warren held out and did what was asked of them [for the most part]. And now teams are going into a postseason scenario where they have to face Cole, Schlittler or Fried, or Rodon. And that's not very pleasant, no matter who's behind you.

Here's the part that's reminding me of the 2025 Dodgers. The starting options are great, the starters who aren't getting postseason rotation jobs are gonna be great long relievers, there's already Blackburn, Headrick and Yarbrough who can do the extended stuff, and then they just have John Schreiber lying around acting like the Royals didn't just waive him. There is depth to this pitching staff that was not there last year, and that can go a long way. And that's not even mentioning David Bednar, who hit his stride midyear like he usually does, and has 32 saves and a 2.63 ERA. 

Really the only concern is the hitters not showing up, which has happened before and will happen again. Aaron Judge is still easing back into his usual standard of production, Ryan McMahon and Jasson Dominguez are still not as consistent as forecast, Goldschmidt and Lombard have cooled down, and even when healthy Jazz Chisholm will do well only when he wants to. The idea is that when this lineup is on, they're not a worry, but they have those periods where nothing's happening. And the idea is that could happen when playing an actual competitive team, like it did against the Jays last year, and like it typically does against the Astros in October. The idea is that now that Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Luis Garcia and Spencer Jones are united in their quest to pummel the hell out of the ball, hopefully the production will increase to the extent where we'll just roll through.

I'd love to see this Yankees team go deep this year. I think they have enough to contend. They just need to decide whether or not that's possible for them. There's gonna be some tough teams ahead, like the Red Sox, White Sox, Rays and possibly the Astros. They need to band together and prove their superiority to past teams that have made mistakes when the competition gets tougher. The potential is there, they just need to commit. 

Coming Tonight: The Phils picked him up for his impeccable contact ability, and they're not exactly dissatisfied so far.