Yankees Magazine: Family Matters

This Q&A is excerpted from an interview for the New York Yankees Official Podcast. Subscribe at yankees.com/podcast or the podcast platform of your choice, or watch every episode on the Gotham Sports app or MLB.com.

Some of the most necessary philanthropic efforts are born out of tragedy that not even superstar athletes are immune from. It’s a lesson that Carlos and Ashley Rodón learned the hard way, and one they are currently using to help scores of couples in the same situation they once encountered.

Years ago, when Carlos was still a young, hyped pitcher, he and Ashley endured a devastation all too common for hopeful parents: a series of miscarriages that had them struggling to see a path forward for the family they dreamed of starting. While the ensuing years blessed them with three healthy children — Willow, Bo and Silo — the Rodóns turned their initial pain into a foundation that has been providing couples with Willow Grants, which help cover the exorbitant costs associated with fertility treatments, among other things. The foundation has awarded more than 50 grants, has seen two “Willow Grant babies” born and, at press time, was expecting eight more. And after the “Game of Impact” at Yankee Stadium on July 5 helped the foundation raise more than $100,000, the Carlos Rodón Foundation will hold its third annual Willow Gala this month, with a goal of raising even more funds to help young couples navigate perhaps the most challenging time in their lives.

Last month, Carlos and Ashley chatted with Yankees Magazine deputy editor Jon Schwartz for an episode of the New York Yankees Official Podcast, in which they discussed the impact that family has on a successful career, the difficulty of being vulnerable in a baseball clubhouse, being nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award and — because we couldn’t not talk a little baseball — the odd goal of maintaining a “mildly upset but under control” mentality on the mound. For more information about the Carlos Rodón Foundation’s efforts or to pledge your own support, visit RodonFoundation.org.

Yankees Magazine: Carlos, we often talk about the people behind the scenes. Usually, we’re talking about trainers, doctors, clubbies. When you think about the life you’re building as a successful baseball player and as a successful person, too, how important is family?

Carlos Rodón: It takes a very special person to be a part of this life, right? Especially when you bring someone that you love. It takes a strong-minded person, an independent person at times, and especially if you have a family. Once you bring kids into this realm, the roller coaster really begins. It’s my job to go out and compete and try to win games for the Yankees and my teammates. But also, it’s to be a dad. I’m a parent first, and then I’m a baseball player. But the person you choose as your partner in crime, luckily, I chose Ashley because she’s really good at what she does. You have to have a quarterback at home. Obviously, we’re compensated well, and we’re fortunate that we play a kid’s game for a living. But there’s a lot of moving pieces that go into this life and this lifestyle, and it takes a special person to be able to juggle all those things.

YM: Like a lot of people, my family is the source of my greatest joys in this world, but also my greatest stresses. I mean, you want to do this right. I am certain that I take frustrations and stresses with me to work sometimes, and I know that there are days I’m not at my best. You don’t really get to do that. You don’t get to say, “Oh man, I had a rough day at home. Give me a break today.”

CR: I mean, you’re compartmentalizing those things. Being able to go to the yard every day is obviously a blessing. And I guess you could say it’s a curse because we spend a lot of time away from our family. But it’s a two-way street, getting away from the game when you’re not performing well, or you don’t feel good, or things aren’t going right in the clubhouse, then you get to go home and be with your kids. So, they kind of feed off each other; it ebbs and flows.

YM: Ashley, I don’t know the spin rate on your curveball or anything like that, but I imagine that you feel like you have a job to play here and that you are a part of Carlos’ success on the mound in a lot of ways. Am I correct?

Ashley Rodón: Obviously, I cannot do his job. But I do take my role and my part of his life very seriously, trying to be the best at taking any weight off of him that isn’t baseball. I try to put that on me. Everything outside of baseball is my job. And then his job is baseball.

YM: It’s a nice division of labor.

CR: This is a teamwork kind of thing. It’s not easy to find someone who can come into this lifestyle and have to be pretty self-dependent and independent as well. They have to be able to take care of themselves and then have to take care of a man and multiple children — including their husbands, who could be children as well.

AR: [laughing] Four kids!

CR: Yeah, so four kids. It takes a special person. But it also takes a team. We’re really lucky; our parents help us out a lot. When they say it takes a village to raise children, it’s a true statement. And we embody that.

YM: What does normal family time look like for the Rodóns?

AR: Carlos is the best dad. I always say I picked the best partner. This man will get home from the field or wake up and be out throwing baseballs. Our son Bo is obsessed with baseball. All he wants to do all day is hit balls, catch pop flies. We can be inside or outside. It doesn’t matter as long as we’re playing baseball. And I’m a cool mom — we’re allowed to hit baseballs inside. I would rather foster your happiness than worry about my stuff. And then Silo just wants to catch and hit, and Willow loves to draw.

YM: One of the things about being a great pitcher, a great athlete, is projecting confidence and some sort of toughness and invincibility. I am guessing, Ashley, I am not telling you something you don’t know, but Carlos can be a little bit of an intimidating interview at times. There’s a bit of a hard shell that you have to crack. From your perspective, when you see some of that stuff, does that look real to you? Or does that look like he is putting on a face?

AR: Oh, no, that’s him. Carlos is a competitor. It’s what makes him great. And that’s what I always say to people. I’m like, if you know Carlos, then you know the sweetie who would do anything for me. But if you don’t know Carlos and all you see is the competitor, you’re probably going to be afraid. I would be afraid if that was the only version of Carlos I ever saw! But to me, I’m very similar. I feel like there’s a respect there for him, that I’m like, “Go be an animal.” The point is to win. Go win.

YM: I will always love the fact that before Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, you’re previewing Game 6, which obviously doesn’t happen, unfortunately. You’re talking about that emotional needle you try to thread sometimes on the mound and someone asks what you’re going for, and your comment was, “Mildly upset and under control.” I want you to explain what that means.

CR: I have to have some sort of edge. I just feel like I perform better with some sort of edge and then a little bit of fire. Too much, and it spills over; too little, and it’s not enough. And that’s why it’s kind of like throttling the line. It’s like when you’re at 6,000 or 7,000 RPMs on a really fast car, and you just have to hold it there. Go too high, then the engine’s going to kick out, and we’re going to overheat; go too low, and we’re just not getting enough out of it. So, yeah, that’s where my mind is.

YM: But Ashley, is this what we’re setting as a North Star? “Mildly upset and under control?”

AR: Yeah! I love to win. When we came to New York, that was the conversation — “Where do we go to have the best chance to win?” Whatever it takes to win. And I think if you have followed Carlos’ career, from N.C. State to the White Sox to the Giants, in some of his biggest, best, brightest moments, you’re always going to see the fire. There’s never a quiet, dominant Carlos.

YM: I bring this up because I want to talk about the foundation, and in particular, I want to talk about some of the struggles that led to what the Carlos Rodón Foundation does. You have three beautiful children, as you’ve mentioned, but like so many people, your journey to build that family you dreamed of was anything but easy. You’ve both chosen to speak publicly about this, which is not something that a lot of couples do. And you didn’t have to do it. Why did you feel like it was important not to be private and personal about this stuff?

AR: When it first happened, there was a woman who was with me during my [dilation and curettage] in the ER. I was having a very hard time, thinking to myself what a failure I am. I don’t like to lose, and I don’t like to fail at things. But she put her hand on my hand and said, “Honey, I know you’re not OK right now, but I’ve been in your shoes, and you’re going to be OK.” It was the only time I felt like somebody understood me. And in that moment, I said to myself, If we get to the other side of this, I would like to help other women. Because it made me feel like somebody understood the pain I was in.

YM: One of the things you learn very quickly as you start experiencing this is, “There are a lot of people who have been in my shoes.” It’s this giant community of people that generally don’t talk about the fact that they’re part of a community, when the reality is, if people knew it existed, it would probably be incredibly helpful. Something like one in six couples go through these struggles of having difficulty with pregnancy. What can we do about the stigma that gets attached to the conversation around lost pregnancy?

AR: I think half the time this stigma, we put it on ourselves. What did I do wrong? Could I have done something different? I think the only people who can take the weight off of you are people who have been through it. And if you isolate yourself, you just continue to push yourself down.

CR: Women’s health is neglected a lot. We’re kind of scratching the surface with giving out these grants for people that want to have kids. And it’s making a big difference. So, we’re grateful.

YM: Everyone around a baseball team wants to talk about family, right? When do you learn that part of what it means to say that we’re a family means not just that we’re going to have each other’s backs, but also that we can be vulnerable in front of each other, that they can know that I’m struggling right now in ways that aren’t obvious?

CR: That’s one of the hardest things to do. It’s easy for me to do it with my wife because she’s someone I truly trust, in sickness and in health. Those are the words in our vows, something we truly believe in. So, it’s easy for me to let down my guard with my wife. But as a teammate, it can be tough, especially when you’re in a room full of men. So, I don’t really know how to answer your question. It just takes a group of good people and good teammates to be able to handle that together.

YM: For an alpha-male athlete, does this change your understanding of what strength is?

CR: For sure. We got into this not because we wanted to show we’re courageous or because we wanted the limelight. We wanted to do this because we just wanted to help people. We’ve been together for a long time now. We’ve been blessed with a lot of things. Who we are as Christians, it’s our job: How do we give back? How do we help people? This was our avenue.

YM: Tell me about the Willow Grants. What is the work that you guys are doing? What is the goal? What are the successes?

AR: It’s the third year we’re doing this. We’ve been able to give 50 families grants, which is really great. We’ve had two babies born in the last couple weeks. Fertility is a tough thing; it takes a long time to get a healthy baby. There’s eight more babies on the way, and I want to say there’s 30 families in treatment right now who haven’t completed their cycles. So, it’s been a really awesome journey to where we are. And I think the goal this year is to just keep growing and helping more families and finding more families that need our help. We focus a lot on loss just because we went through it, miscarrying our son. And then another miscarriage. It’s kind of our wheelhouse. That’s why we deal with people who have gone through miscarriage, embryo loss. What originally was us sharing our story to make people feel less alone, now, every day, our families just keep inspiring us to keep helping more families. They are our why.

YM: I always go back to something that Aaron Boone said last year during HOPE Week. He said that whatever the goals the team has on the field, nothing will be more important than what you do that week in the community. Carlos, does that resonate with you guys in the clubhouse? Even the New York Yankees — “Breathing first, winning second,” right? Does that mentality break through among the guys?

CR: I mean, I hope it does, right? We dedicate a whole week to community service, and that starts with the Steinbrenner family. George instilled in his children and his family that it’s important to give back and help your community.

YM: Carlos, I’m pretty sure that you’re supposed to go to one event, right? But we always see Ashley there with you at all of these. How do you get to that point where you say, “This is something that we’re doing together?”

CR: The biggest thing for us was the amount of help in donations and time from people around us. The Yankees have helped kick this off for us, big time. I feel like the least that we can do is to show up.

AR: It’s such a rare opportunity to be able to walk into a room and to make someone smile because of who you are. I think that’s such a unique gift that you get blessed with. All it takes is your existence to make someone happy. It’s such a simple thing. It doesn’t take much.

YM: Carlos, last year you were the Yankees’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, which goes to the player who best mixes on- and off-field excellence. I have spoken to a lot of players over the years who have said that it’s one of the most important ways you can be honored. But also, that it is truly the award that they can share with their wives. What does it mean to you both to have been recognized in that way?

CR: She is the backbone. I’m more of the face. But I will say, I do participate! I don’t want you guys to think that I’m just a pretty face on the poster. I have read grants! The first few years, I read almost all of them.

AR: I will say, last year, I was looking into who Roberto Clemente was as a baseball player. I knew who he was, but I had no clue what an amazing baseball player he was. Unbelievable. Also, obviously, unbelievable off the field. And what an amazing thing to honor him.

YM: Last thing: How can people help out? How can they get involved with what you guys are doing?

AR: I think for us, the biggest thing is telling people who need the grants. If you want to financially help, that’s always great. But the point of what we’re doing is to find families to help. And RodonFoundation.org is our website, if people want to learn more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Jon Schwartz is the deputy editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the August 2026 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.