Carlos Rodon making case for spot in Yankees’ playoff rotation

Kind of interesting, isn’t it, that Marcus Stroman might actually not be good enough to be one of the Yankees’ four playoff starters?

If you recall, that was at the guts of the spat between Brian Cashman and Stroman in 2019, when the Yankees did not obtain the righty at the trade deadline. The Yankees GM said in the aftermath that he did not want to overpay in an acquisition because Stroman would have fallen to the bullpen in the postseason.

Stroman reacted with a couple of years of social media attacks on Cashman, especially at times of postseason failure. Cashman and Stroman had to smooth over that history as part of him signing a two-year, $37 million contract.

Yet approaching the three-quarter mark of the schedule, Stroman almost certainly would not be in a Yankee postseason rotation. He has looked like a marathoner out of gas at 20 miles with a 7.56 ERA and 1.000 OPS against in his last six starts. He was pushed back from Thursday to a series finale Sunday against the Rangers to work on mechanics. He feels this is a glitch, not exhaustion and can be fixed.

And part of the rest of this season for the Yankees is determining who will start in the playoffs in either a best-of-three or best-of-five scenario. So it was an intriguing 36 hours at Yankee Stadium Saturday and Sunday, going from Clarke Schmidt’s live batting practice to Carlos Rodon in the opener of a doubleheader to Gerrit Cole in the nightcap to Stroman to close.

Schmidt, who threw 20 pitches Wednesday, delivered 25 without a break Saturday. He said the full arsenal he deployed in facing the rehabbing Jon Berti, Anthony Rizzo and Jose Trevino would have gotten outs in a real game. Aaron Boone described himself as thrilled with the performance. There is still a discussion when to advance to rehab games and how many, but also a growing belief that Schmidt will return to the rotation by late this month.

Boone called Schmidt “a top 10 or 15 starter in the league” when he went down with a lat injury. That kind of pitcher earns postseason work. Still, at this moment, the only sure thing — health permitting — is Cole because, well, he is Cole. The pedigree will win out even if he is never the Cy Young of last season. Everything else is TBD: It is not a wrap for Stroman, but can he and Nestor Cortes regather themselves? Can Luis Gil, after not pitching most of the last two seasons, make it to the finish line sturdy? And can Carlos Rodon continue his recent excellent run in which he is in the midst of doing the difficult — getting knocked down in New York and rising.

Rodon caromed between unhealthy, unsuccessful and, at times, unprofessional in his 2023 Yankees debut. He said it became a mental game to show, “I’m better than what I put out on the field the year before, and I want to prove that I’m capable of being the pitcher I have been.”

He was good early, followed by terrible, but after 5 ²/₃ shutout innings in an 8-0 rout of the reeling Rangers, he has a four-start run now of a 2.22 ERA and .197 batting average against.

To watch Rodon on Saturday was to see the good and also why he has not gained complete trust. Rodon’s stuff is excellent, especially when he can place his fastball to either corner to open up expanding usage/belief in his changeup. He allowed just three singles.

But Rodon also walked five. That included Wyatt Langford, who did not swing at any of six pitches in the second inning. Langford only swung once at seven pitches in the midst of striking out looking to close the third. Rodon barked at Langford to swing and initially home-plate ump Adam Hamari seemed to think it was directed at him, as did Boone who raced out. To risk in any way getting ejected in the third inning of a doubleheader opener revealed the fight with emotion that even Rodon concedes he still has.

Can he control his pitches and his mood enough to just get the excellent stuff? Those feel like the final hurdles because the oft-injured Rodon has shown durability in 2024. He has made all his starts. He threw 110 pitches Saturday, his most as a Yankee.

And Rodon was the beneficiary of stellar at-bats by his team. The Yanks had 12 hits in the opener, 10 with two strikes. Five of their six walks and their lone hit by pitch were produced with full counts. Aaron Judge fell behind 1-2, 1-2 and 0-2 in his first three at-bats, fouled off six two-strike pitches combined, saw 23 pitches in all and delivered three hits. Austin Wells battled from down 1-2 and 0-2 to generate the big hits behind Judge in this game — a two-run double in the third and two-run single in the fourth.

Rodon helped make it stand. He got better with the lead growing. And so now what also continues growing is belief in Rodon, and that he can be part of a postseason rotation.