Carlos Rodón is one step away from completely repairing his Yankees legacy

Heading into his Thursday outing — his final of the 2025 regular season — Carlos Rodón has a 3.04 ERA, 3.76 FIP and 1.06 WHIP with 198 strikeouts in 32 starts (189 1/3 innings). His 4.7 WAR is his best since his 5.1 mark with the San Francisco Giants back in 2022. After what had transpired in 2023 and 2024, nobody thought he'd be able to rebound to this degree.

Yankees fans were certainly hard on the left-hander when he spiraled out of control (and dealt with injuries) in 2023 and then couldn't maintain much consistency in 2024, but Rodón has now won the crowd back. All that's left? An impressive 2025 postseason.

Once that happens, there will be no complaints from anybody about his contract unless something catastrophic happens. Rodón has been just as good as Max Fried, which was unthinkable heading into this year, especially with Gerrit Cole out of the picture.

Rodón's six-year, $162 million contract felt like an anvil hanging over everybody's head as recently as this offseason. There was little faith he'd be able to step in and make up for the losses of Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt at the start of the season. But he managed to do that and exceed expectations, and it's safe to say playoff opponents couldn't be less excited to face him this October.

Rodón is averaging the fewest hits (6.1) and home runs (1.0) per nine innings of his career. His 198 strikeouts are the second-best mark of his career (he somehow struck out 237 batters in 178 innings in 2022). This is a man on a mission.

Carlos Rodón's contract all of a sudden looking like it was all worth it for the Yankees

Had Rodón performed like a co-ace last postseason, perhaps the Yankees would've won the World Series. But we can't be so sure since so many other factors contributed to their downfall, from a lack of fundamentals to terrible managerial decisions to Aaron Judge completely disappearing.

Though the Yankees aren't the favorites in the American League (the Mariners have better odds to win the World Series), there's an argument to be had that Fried and Rodón at their absolute best — which we have seen for most of 2025 — could propel New York to the mountaintop with proper assistance from one of MLB's best offenses.

While we won't get ahead of ourselves, we will certainly give Rodón his flowers because he has taken his fair share of punches since arriving back in 2023. He's managed to scratch and claw his way back into relevancy and come closer to being labeled a "co-ace" in New York than ever before. You can't deny this massive shift in play:

• 2023 - 6.85 ERA, 5.79 FIP, 1.45 WHIP in 14 starts (64 1/3 innings)
• 2024 - 3.96 ERA, 4.39 FIP, 1.22 WHIP in 32 starts (175 innings)
• 2025 - 3.04 ERA, 3.76 FIP, 1.06 WHIP in 32 starts and counting (189 1/3 innings)

That's one of the more inspiring about-faces we've seen when considering how hard it is to rebound in New York after making a poor first impression. Hat's off to Rodón, who still has plenty of time to etch his legacy in stone.

Let's get that sub-3.00 ERA on Thursday night and then get prepared for the playoffs.