NEW YORK – It has been more than a month since Carlos Rodón’s most recent appearance in a game situation, and the Yankees left-hander seems as curious as anyone what it will look like. He’s about to find out.
Rodón is scheduled to pitch three innings or about 45 pitches for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday evening vs. Rochester.
“It feels good; it feels normal,” Rodón said. “I feel like it’s just to get the innings count up, get the pitches up, and I’ll be ready when I’m ready.”
Rodón’s last start was on June 28; he was then placed on the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation. He tossed approximately 40 pitches in live batting practice on Monday at Yankee Stadium, reporting no issues.
It has been an interrupted year for Rodón, whose season debut was delayed until May 10 as he recovered from offseason left elbow surgery. He went 4-2 with a 3.30 ERA in nine starts before landing on the IL, and he is hopeful the silver lining could be that he’s well-rested for the postseason push.
“Right now, it feels that way,” Rodón said. “We’ll see how it goes, getting into games.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said it’s possible Rodón will make one more rehab start, then return to the rotation, potentially in a “piggyback” role as he builds stamina.
“I think we’ll piggyback him at some point,” Boone said. “It’s just, do we have him do one more and then do the piggyback at whatever pitch count he’s at? That’s the most likely right now.”
That figures to impact either Ryan Weathers or Will Warren, either of whom could begin to log innings in relief. Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole and Max Fried are considered mainstays of the Yanks’ potential playoff rotation.
The team is watching Weathers’ workload, as he has already thrown a career-high 121 innings across 22 starts. One of the league’s most durable starters in the last year-plus, Warren has 114 innings under his belt in 23 games (22 starts) after firing 162 1/3 innings as a rookie last season.
“There’s definitely a lot of uncertainty,” Warren said. “I think it’s a good thing that we have all these arms. At the end of the day, my job is to take the ball every time I get it. Whenever that is, I’m going to go out there and try to execute.”