Yankees’ Carlos Rodon sticks up for trainers in revealing Q&A | ‘I better pitch 200 innings; They’re paying me $27M a year, bro!’

TORONTO — Carlos Rodon has one more start to his first Yankees season, Friday night in Kansas City. There’s no salvaging anything. He’s had a bad year.

The left-hander doesn’t need anyone to tell him that he didn’t earn much of the $22 million that he banked in season one of his six-year, $162-million contract.

Rodon spent the first half of the season on the injured list with a forearm strain that occurred in spring training. That healed pretty quickly, but his back kept flaring up while he rehabbed and he wound up not debuting until July.

Hoping for a good final three months and then great playoff outings, Rodon struggled in most his starts until improving some in September. His August included another injured-list stint for a mild hamstring strain that he wanted to pitch through.

All the while, the Yankees sputtered their way to a first no-playoffs season since 2016 with 38 IL stints for 28 players.

The numbers embarrass Rodon. In 13 starts, he’s 3-7 with a 5.74 ERA. He knows he’s way better than that. He knows that he’s an ace when he’s healthy and going well, like he was in 2022 with the White Sox and 2023 with the Giants, both All-Star seasons.

That’s what he plans on being next year for the Yankees when his salary jumps to $27 million. But that can’t happen unless Rodon stays healthy, which definitely is no sure thing. Since breaking into the majors in 2015, he’s been hurt every season except for his rookie season, 2021 and 2022. He’s made 30 starts just once, 25 twice. He’s been out with wrist, biceps, shoulder, elbow, back and hip issues. And he’s not a young pitcher anymore; Rodon turns 31 in December.

Before Thursday night’s game, a 6-0 Yankees loss to the Blue Jays, Rodon talked with NJ Advance Media for 25 minutes. He was honest and revealing in the Q&A, especially when making a very strong defense for the Yankees’ training staff.

What are your thoughts on what’s been a crummy season for you?

Rodon: That’s a nice way to put it. I’ve done OK the last couple starts. The last one I thought I was pretty efficient pitching into the seventh. but we still lost the game, so that hurts. Going into this last start. I just want to have fun. That’s why we play this game, right? It’s a freaking kids game. We definitely lose sight of that with expectations we have on ourselves and the amount of money we’re getting paid. I know it sounds so cliche, but I just can’t lose sight of the true meaning of this game. I want to have fun. I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on myself.

Do you think you’ve been putting too much pressure on yourself trying to live up to your contract?

Rodon: Yeah, but I think that comes with the territory when you want to do well. I do want to do well. I want to impress my teammates. I want my teammates to look up to me. And I really want the fans to like me. Yeah, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself. But that’s OK. I feel I can handle that.

Playing in New York isn’t easy when you struggle. Ask Joey Gallo.

Rodon: I’ve heard he had a hard time.

You came in trumpeted as a possible final piece to a World Series team, You got the big contract. You were coming off two All-Star years. And then it was Murphy’s Law. You get hurt. You miss half the year. You come back and really struggle. You end up on the IL again. Fans are on you. Tough season.

Rodon: Everything’s easy when things are going great, right? Anybody can handle that. But what kind of guy are you when the shit hits the fan.

You can tell that you care. You’re intense on the mound. You were disgusted when you were on the IL. You talk about wanting to win all the time. You probably can’t wait for this season to get over.

Rodon: Yeah, I want this to be over with.

What are you going to do? Family vacation?

Rodon: Me? I’m going to get away, man. You won’t find me. I’ll be gone.

You going to go to some tropic island on sit on a beach?

Rodon: I’ll be here, but you won’t find me. I have a place not far from Kansas City. I’ll drive there after Sunday’s game and spend some time by myself. Just me. No wife. No kids. I want some time to not think about baseball. Then I’ll go home to Indiana and spend time with my family.

What do you remember from your signing press conference at Yankee Stadium last winter? You shaved your beard. No mustache. You were so happy. You were so confident that the Yankees would make a World Series run this year after losing in the ALCS last year.

Rodon: I signed with the New York Yankees to be part of a World Series club. That’s what my expectation was. That’s what my expectation still is and will always be. Everyone here feels that way, all the players. We’ve underperformed this year. I think if you take a look back on the season, we took a lot of hits with injuries. Let’s be honest.

But there’s no getting around that this has been a bad season for the Yankees. You’ve been playing mostly prospects for a month.

Rodon: In this moment we can talk about the process where we’ve been out of it and we have these kids building up. I’ve enjoyed Austin Wells catching my last few starts. Wells and the others we called up got to enjoy the process with a little less pressure this last month. They’re getting to develop as big leaguers, which is nice. But I think that shifts to the wayside now. Coming into spring training, we’ve got to freaking win. That’s what matters.

The problem here is the Yankees probably won’t win until the injuries slow down. This has been a big issue five years in a row, maybe longer. Everybody gets hurt. Changes are coming after the season and the training staff could be affected in addition to other areas, probably the analytics staff.

Rodon: Honestly, that’s the powers that be who will make those calls. As a player, all I can do is perform and try to win ballgames. That’s the biggest thing for me. How do we win a baseball game? That’s what we have to worry about. We are the New York Yankees. But there’s no one else to put the blame on for this season but the players. The training stuff has no control who gets hurt and who stays healthy. Yes or no?

I’d say yes, because almost everyone gets hurt over and over, especially the older players. And it’s usually the same types of injuries for guys like Giancarlo Stanton, some kind of leg muscle strain. I have to think the strength and conditioning guys and the trainers are at least partly responsible.

Rodon: We’re an older team. Are we not?

You were an older team until a month ago when the front office gave up on the season and called up all the prospects.

Rodon: Yeah, until a month ago! We had this spike of youth and our average age went way down. That’s funny. But blame this season and our injuries on the trainers? No. It’s on us. It’s on the players. None of the guys in the training room want anyone to be hurt. They want us to play. I feel like sometimes I have to say that shit because you guys don’t think like that.

You think the Yankees’ training staff is as good as anywhere else you’ve been?

Rodon: I’ve been a part of some teams where the training stuff is not good. At all. That’s in the past. I’m not going to get into where that was, but this training staff to me is more than capable. You can blame this season on whoever you want, but does it matter at this point? It’s in the past.

It matters because the Yankees are crushed by injuries every year. They’ve been at or near the top in IL stints for five years.

Rodon: I don’t have that knowledge. I’ve only been here a year. I’ll say this: The Yankees are pretty cautious. I was put on the damn IL for a hamstring that was nothing. I could have pitched with it. But I totally understand. They were protecting me. But I know that I didn’t have to go on the IL for that. So there are 15 IL days right there. Who knows how many other times that’s happened with us this year? They use discretion. We’ve got to be careful with guys. The New York Yankees are known for investing in their players and they want to keep them on the field, so I’m sure that’s happened numerous times.

Give me an example of something conditioning wise that you noticed this season that didn’t occur when you played for other teams.

Rodon: Every resource is available and it’s not always like that everywhere else. Anything available, they will look into it no matter what it is. Our trainers spend numerous hours with guys after the game. Today is a getaway day. We’re not going to get to Kansas City probably until 3 in the morning because they’ll be treating guys after the game for an hour. Every freaking off day there’s a time that players come in and do stuff. You can say, ‘Well, that should be par for the course.’ No. We play 162 games in 180-some days. An off day is precious. People have families. Our trainers have families, as well, but they show up every day and they do their job. It’s just hard is to blame all our injuries on them. We’re the ones performing. I’m the one who pitches. You know what I mean?

You still need to prove that you can stay healthy, right? You’ve been hurt a lot in your career. A lot of Yankees fans fear this will keep occurring.

Rodon: People have said that every year in my career. I could throw 300 innings and it wouldn’t matter. I pitched 180 last year and it didn’t matter.

What’s the goal for next year? You’re a big, strong lefty. You should be a guy who throws 200 innings easy.

Rodon: No shit! I better pitch 200 innings. They’re paying me $27 million a year, bro! Let’s be real.

What’s your message to Yankees fans?

Rodon: I don’t know. I don’t want to sugarcoat anything. I don’t want to butter them up or anything. They probably don’t want to hear that. They just want to know I’m going to show up. I want to make every start next year. I have to think about this. I don’t know what I want to say to the fans. I’ll say this: I’m disappointed in my year, but I have five more to prove myself.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.