Thursday was another big day at Yankee Stadium, where the team introduced star starting pitcher Carlos Rodon a day after choosing Aaron Judge as their 16th captain. The occasion was also marked by the appearance of Rodon without his trademark beard and his comments expressing how special he held a desire to pitch in The Bronx in the pinstripes.
“I’ve always enjoyed pitching at Yankee Stadium. It seems like I have good numbers here,” Carlos Rodón said. “Just putting on these pinstripes is something special. A lot of legends have been through this organization. There’s a lot of history here.”
Earlier Carlos Rodon and the Yankees agreed to a six-year, $162 million deal that has a full no-trade clause written into it. At last year’s Trade Deadline, the Yankees tried very hard to get the starter. They wanted the All-Star left-hander because they thought his fastball and slider would help them get far in the playoffs. It took a little longer than expected, but they found the person they were looking for this winter.
Fans who were used to seeing Carlos Rodon on the mound with his signature beard might have needed a moment to figure out who their new star was when the starter walked into the press room at Yankee Stadium. Carlos Rodon acknowledged that he hadn’t been clean-shaven in almost a decade, but as soon as the contract was signed, he went and got a razor. On Thursday morning, he cleaned up a bit more.
“You’ll get used to it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “There will be days when you push the envelope a little bit and I’ve got to walk up to you, so I look forward to that.”
Rodon’s wife Ashley took to Instagram and wrote:
“The last 8 years have had more ups and downs than I could have ever imagined we would have to face. Words can’t describe how proud I am to be your wife. You’re the best husband and father. Can’t wait for this next step for our family. The Yankees got a great one. 972 games to put that jersey on your back, what a blessing. God has been good through it all.🤍.”
Yankees’ top brass was after Carlos Radon
Now, he’s with the Yankees. Yankees GM Brian Cashman said that he tried to trade for Carlos Rodon at the end of last season, but the Giants didn’t want to sell the left-handed pitcher. He also talked about his worries about Rodon, who is 30 years old and has been healthy for the past two years.
“I can’t deny he has a history of injuries prior to the last two seasons,’’ Cashman tol;d. “The hope is he found his area of comfort in his professional career and trying to find how to navigate a 162-game season. Certainly, the hope and belief is he found his sweet spot the last couple years.”
Carlos Rodon has used his fastball and slider to become one of the best pitchers in the majors over the last two years. He has finally lived up to the promise he showed when the White Sox picked him with the third overall pick out of N.C. State in 2014.
Aaron Boone said that he had watched Carlos Rodon first when the pitcher was in college and he was working at ESPN. Boone talked about Rodon’s “adversity” in his career, which included an arthroscopy surgery on his shoulder in 2017 and Tommy John surgery two years later.
The new meeting was attended by Rodón’s wife, children, parents, and in-laws. The kids were surprised by his clean-shaven look.
Carlos Rodon to use Venmo gifts Yankees fans to help Indian family
Before Carlos Rodon agreed to the deal, Yankee fans found his Venmo account and started sending him money, mostly in $5-$10 amounts, to try to “get him” to come to The Bronx. It started on Rodon’s 30th birthday and several hundred people had contributed over time.
When Carlos Rodon saw it, he started giving the money back.
“It was a nice gesture,’’ Rodon told the contributors in a message, “Now I have to give all these people their money back, hahaha.”
The left-handed pitcher said that he and his family had found a good cause for the rest of the money to spend. His cousin suggested that the money be given to a good cause for the holidays. That led to Rodon and his family helping a child and his family in Indiana, whose house had burned down, find a new place to live. In his words on Thursday:
“I didn’t know what to expect. My wife [Ashley] and I were in the car and I was starting to send them back and she was like, Carlos, there’s like 400 Venmo requests. My cousin was standing right there and was like ‘hey, we should do something nice for someone for the holidays,’ and that’s kind of something we’re going to do.”
“Yankee fans and all fans of baseball, I appreciate you guys sending me Venmos. I don’t need the money, but we’re going to give it to someone who does need the money.”
“We have a kid whose house burned down. He’s 15 or 16 years old, we’re going to do something nice for him for the holidays. [They’re] a family in western-central Indiana who doesn’t really have much. [They] don’t have home insurance, so they’ve kind of gotten set up with a house and some living situations.”
FanGraphs says that Carlos Rodon was worth 6.2 WAR in 2022, which was the second-highest mark for a Major League pitcher behind Aaron Nola of Philadelphia (6.3).
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