Yankees decide on Carlos Rodón as Opening Day starter after Gerrit Cole injury

Carlos Rodón brought up the lasting taste in his mouth and the mouths of his teammates and the team’s fans. 

The most recent memory of baseball being played at Yankee Stadium will be regretted forever. 

“Unfortunately the last game we played there was Game 5 of the World Series, which was also electric [in energy],” Rodón said of the misplay-filled disaster on the sport’s biggest stage. “The outcome was not. But always a great atmosphere.” 

The quest of dispensing mouthwash will begin with Rodón, who earned the title of Opening Day starter on Friday. 

Rodón was not the team’s first choice — Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery will loom over this season and probably some of next — and not quite the second.

Carlos Rodón throws a pitch during his spring training outing for the Yankees on Feb. 27.

Max Fried already had been lined up for the second game of the season, and it would have been “really tough” to overhaul his schedule, manager Aaron Boone said, which would have entailed Fried receiving one fewer spring start and not being fully stretched out. 

So the Yankees approached their $162 million arm, who had no second-thoughts about his own schedule being tweaked. Rodón will pitch Saturday in a sim game at Steinbrenner Field and then get one more outing before Game 1 against the Brewers in The Bronx on March 27.

Some pitchers fight to earn the Opening Day nod. Others have resisted last-week adjustments to their throwing schedule. 

Rodón falls in neither category. 

Carlos Rodón throws a warmup pitch before his spring training outing Feb. 22.

“They just brought it to me, and I just kind of just work here and do as I’m told,” Rodón said to laughs. 

The team’s next request: If Rodón cannot exactly fill the cleats of Cole, he can be one of the starters who steps up in Cole’s absence. 

Year 3 of Rodón’s tenure in pinstripes will be telling.

He has endured one injury-filled mess (in 2023) and one bounce-back season (last year) in which he probably did not bounce back as highly as hoped.

He remained healthy for 32 starts and logged 175 regular-season innings while showing a more diverse arsenal, but he finished with a middling 3.96 ERA.

There is more within Rodón, who finished within the top six in Cy Young voting in 2021 and ’22. 

“Everything’s been there [this spring]. The stuff’s been there,” Boone said of Rodón. “I feel like his arsenal continues to evolve. Secondary stuff getting stronger and stronger. Changeup becoming a real factor for him now.” 

The southpaw arrived as essentially a two-pitch pitcher, his biting slider and hard, up-in-the-zone four-seam fastball resulting in impressive strikeout totals.

The Yankees are hoping for good things from Carlos Rodon this year.

But when he was healthy in ’23, he was knocked around and perhaps too predictable. 

Last year he was better rounded, mixing in a curveball and a changeup that was still a work in progress. He was less dominant than his peak but able to compete. 

“It’s quite the journey for sure, some ups and downs,” Rodón said of his tenure. “Just had to change up the mix a little bit and rely on some offspeed. 

“I’ve gotten to expand on those things throughout spring training here.” 

His Grapefruit League results have been poor — six earned runs in 5 ¹/₃ innings — but there have been encouraging signs.

The changeup that has become his camp project has induced nine swings, little hard contact and four whiffs. 

“It’s become a good pitch for him,” Boone said. “A pitch he does use and should use, and not just as a different look.” 

Without Cole, the Yankees will need more from an evolving Rodón, who already had been tabbed as an Opening Day starter back in 2019 with the White Sox.

They will need more from Fried, who will start the second game of the season and is the best bet to take over Cole’s title of ace.

They will need more (and health) from Clarke Schmidt, whose debut is expected to come in Game 6 of the season because of a back hiccup in camp.

Carlos Rodon during an outing last season.

They will need plenty from Marcus Stroman, who has gone from out of the rotation to No. 4, and Will Warren and/or Carlos Carrasco will be asked to pick up slack. 

The process of getting past Cole’s injury and getting over the 2024 World Series, though, will begin with Rodón. 

“It’s just an honor,” he said. “Excited. Just want to go out there and win the game.”