MILWAUKEE – Carlos Rodón spent the bulk of the 2025 season pitching with a bone spur in his left elbow, which severely hindered his ability to do much of anything with his arm. Besides posting a 3.09 ERA across a career-high 195 1/3 innings, that is.
But after undergoing offseason surgery to remove the spur and completing a lengthy rehab process, Rodón was extremely eager to get back on the big league mound to see what it felt like to pitch without such a painful hindrance.
He finally got a chance to do so in Sunday’s season debut against the Brewers at American Family Field. For the first three innings of the Yankees’ 4-3 walk-off loss, it sure looked like a healthy Rodón could be quite a problem for opposing hitters in the months ahead.
Unfortunately, an eventual loss of control put a notable blemish on what had been an impressive start to that point. Rodón was tagged for three runs over 4 1/3 innings, throwing 78 pitches (42 strikes) while walking five and hitting a batter.
Rodón overcame a pair of leadoff walks in his first three big league innings of the season, striking out four without yielding a single hit. But that ability to overcome free passes hit a hurdle in the fourth, as he walked the first two batters he faced before pegging Andrew Vaughn with a pitch on his left shoulder.
“He just kind of lost the zone there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “A couple walks, hit batter. It’s a really good job getting out of those when, in the first two innings, you walk the leadoff batter. That’s usually not a recipe for success. But ultimately, a couple more [and] they come back to haunt him a little bit.”
That’s exactly what took place in the fourth.
Garrett Mitchell eventually ended Rodón’s scoreless outing by hitting a sac fly to center, becoming the first Brewers hitter to get a ball out of the infield. One batter later, Blake Perkins tallied Milwaukee’s first hit of the day with a go-ahead two-run single.
“Any time you give up free baserunners and walk the first guy of the inning, it’s never a good thing,” Rodón said. “Bases-loaded situation, two outs and they get the hit there. None of that happens if I get ahead and get guys out.”
Though the rocky fourth stood out the most, Rodón’s season debut was certainly not without silver linings. He allowed just two hard-hit balls on the day, inducing plenty of soft contact with a heavy mix of four-seamers and sliders.
But if there was any true indication that Rodón’s elbow was in a better spot compared to last season, it was his fastball velocity.
The Yankees’ southpaw averaged 95.7 mph with his four-seamer, 1.6 mph more than he averaged on that offering last season. Though it was just one start, his four-seamer has never averaged higher than 95.5 mph in his entire 11-year career.
Yet for Rodón, the struggles with command outweighed any positives that came from his velocity uptick.
“Velo’s great,” Rodón said, “but when I’m not coming into the zone, it really doesn’t matter how hard I’m throwing.”
The Yankees were able to erase the 3-2 deficit, with Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s game-tying RBI double in the sixth ensuring Rodón wasn’t saddled with a loss on his season debut. But as part of a running theme for the series, Brewers pitchers had New York perpetually coming up short in its search for a game-breaking hit.
The Yankees batted with runners in scoring position just three times Sunday, with rookie Spencer Jones’ first career hit – a second-inning RBI single – representing the only time they cashed in.
New York’s bullpen, pitching with razor-thin margins for the second straight game, was again unable to prevent a Brewers comeback. The loss completed a surprising sweep for a Yankees club that fell into second place, a game behind the Rays, for the first time since April 18.
Despite the result, the day represented a long-awaited moment for Rodón, who was on a big league mound with a healthy elbow for the first time in more than a year. With the adrenaline of his debut out of the way, he was ready to move forward with the adjustments needed to get him back to his All-Star form.
“I was definitely hyped up a little bit,” Rodón said. “It was fun being back out there, obviously. I would’ve liked to have performed better, but I thought the boys played well. It’s a good team, and they played us hard.”