It's been quite a week for the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades, who have now started two rehabbing members of the Yankees rotation in as many days.
On Thursday, it was Gerrit Cole, on his way back from Tommy John surgery; on Friday, the Yanks saw Carlos Rodón, making his first game appearance since undergoing surgery in October 2025 to remove loose bodies and shave a bone spur in his pitching elbow.
“Today was good, just getting back on the bike, feeling the slope out,” Rodón said. “Good to get back in a game and have a couple baserunners, a little bit of adrenaline to it, a real game. I’m champing at the bit you could say. There’s still part of the checklist I got to get through, get the pitch count up, throw a few more games to get back.”
The Yankees anticipated Rodón needing about three rehab starts before returning to the rotation, even factoring in the slight delay caused by a tight right hamstring in March. The left-hander threw 65 pitches (43 strikes) over 4 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out four and allowing one hit alongside a walk and a hit by pitch.
“Most of it is general fastball command,” Rodón said. “Got some changeups in, some sliders in. But it was really just refining the curveball, just trying to get that in the zone. I had a number I wanted to hit on curveballs, not sure how many I threw, but I was trying to get to 10, so hopefully I was close.”