3 veteran starters Yankees must target to ease pain of Carlos Rodón injury

The New York Yankees have a problem brewing. The starting rotation already faced some uncertainty in 2026, without a firm timeline and hazy expectations for Gerrit Cole, and even less certainty surrounding Clarke Schmidt, as both hurlers recover from Tommy John surgery. And that was before the latest Carlos Rodón news.

The veteran left-hander went under the knife to clean up loose bodies and deal with a bone spur in his left elbow, which will sideline him for the first few weeks of the 2026 season. With that, the need for a possible depth starter just got ratcheted up, and the quality of the targets now must be a pitcher who can carry his weight in the rotation for the duration of the season.

No, despite the rumors that will surely percolate due to the somewhat misleading gap in extension talks, Tarik Skubal won't be a realistic target. As much as it would be the stuff that dreams are made of, there's virtually no way the Yankees will carry three record-setting contracts, plus what's left of Rodón's $162 million deal, all in the same rotation - and you can't trade for Skubal without extending him. You just can't.

Instead, a quality veteran on a short-term deal makes the most sense. These three best fit the bill.

Three free-agent starters that must be on the Yankees' radar to weather the Carlos Rodón injury storm

Merrill Kelly

Merrill Kelly makes sense for the Yankees in more ways than one. The 37-year-old has spent the last six-and-a-half years, prior to being traded to the Texas Rangers at the deadline, navigating the NL West gauntlet and having success. Being no stranger to neutralizing high-powered offenses will serve him well in the AL East.

After failing to crack the big league roster as a youngster, the former Tampa Bay Rays draft pick tried his luck over in Korea. Since he returned stateside, he's been a quality arm, posting a 3.77 career big league ERA, while looking even better in 2025 with a 3.52 mark. He's also relatively durable, tossing 158 or more innings in four of the last five seasons.

A one or maybe two-year contract, at mid-level money, is all it would take to get this done.

Chris Bassitt

What's better than making yourself stronger while weakening a rival in the process? That's exactly what the Yankees could achieve here with Chris Bassitt in stealing him away from the Toronto Blue Jays in free agency.

The Jays will have a lot of decisions to make regarding their rotation, but with youngsters like Trey Yesavage pushing forward, a veteran like the 36-year-old Bassitt could shake free.

He checks most of the same boxes as Kelly, with extensive experience having success in the AL East, proven durability with at least 157 innings logged per season each of the last five years, and over 170 innings in each of the last four. He'll also be relatively affordable, without requiring a long-term commitment, after falling out of the Jays' playoff rotation.

Nick Martinez

If Kelly and Bassitt are the safe choices, then Nick Martinez is a guy who could add a little spice. Like Kelly, Martinez struggled early in his career and then moved to Asia, reinventing himself in Japan's NPB. Since coming back to the bigs, he's become one of the most intriguing swingmen in the game.

Martinez made 42 appearances, of which 16 were starts, for the Cincinnati Reds back in 2024, posting a 3.10 ERA in 142.1 total innings. That performance convinced the Reds to tag him with the qualifying offer, which he played under this past season. He didn't have quite the same success, making 20 starts out of his 40 appearances and posting a 4.45 ERA along the way.

However, 2025 was the first season since he returned from Japan in which he posted an ERA above 3.47. It was also the most starts he's racked up in his big league career. Truth be told, Martinez is a better reliever than starter, with a career 2.87 ERA out of the pen, versus a 4.59 mark in the rotation.

Even that's a little misleading, though, since those numbers are impacted by some of his early-career struggles with the Texas Rangers before heading off to Japan. In two out of the last three seasons, he's posted sub-4 ERAs as a starter, headlined by a 2.32 mark in 2023 with the San Diego Padres.

If Rodón is only down for a couple of weeks, Martinez is more than capable of filling in and then sliding to the bullpen to strengthen a unit in desperate need of reinforcements. Should the injury bug strike again, he can easily be shifted back as a starter. That kind of versatility would cut down on roster moves and give the Yankees the best of both worlds at a relatively affordable price.