Carlos Rodón's outdoor bullpen session during smog attack was height of insanity

On Wednesday afternoon, prior to a Yankees-White Sox game that was ultimately cancelled, we learned two very important things.

We learned Carlos Rodón is ready for baseball activities, and woke up feeling prepared for the live session that had been promised earlier in the week. We also learned that Hal Steinbrenner was either too cheap to pay for a regulation indoor mound to be installed at Yankees Stadium, or too foolish to figure out the construction mechanics of such a thing.

Otherwise ... why on earth would Rodón have been forced to take the Yankee Stadium mound during a smog advisory warning, with the air quality rating climbing into "hazardous for all" territory?

Shortly after Rodón threw this live session to Oswaldo Cabrera, DJ LeMahieu and others, MLB bagged Wednesday night's game, because of course they did. Who could possibly play in this? The Yankees' most important pitching asset slowly and carefully making his way back from injury, that's who.

Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón threw off Yankee Stadium mound for first time ... in ridiculous fire haze

According to Aaron Boone, who was asked about Rodón's session following the (long-anticipated) cancellation of the Yankees' scheduled contest, "We just decided we were gonna do it and everyone was on board with it."

Great. Glad that's settled! It's not like Rodón has been prone to health issues recently. Probably a good idea to learn on the fly whether or not his lungs are strong.

Rodón's saga with the Yankees may be frustrating to some, but to most fans with souls, it's just been deeply ... sad. He truly felt like the missing piece this offseason, and luckily, he still may be. But the introduction of a chronic back condition has certainly been a fly in the ointment (and, the way it was sold to us, felt like it could threaten his livelihood).

Deadly Canadian wildfires sending their smoke to New York, Philadelphia and Washington was certainly not on the Yankees' priority list when considering the checkpoints of Rodón's rehab. But, of course, another act of God intersected with the lefty's road back to the bigs (of course), and it represented another predictably worrisome moment in his recovery process.

According to Boone, Rodón has two (or more) live sessions ahead of him before the team considers a rehab assignment -- which could come as soon as the end of next week.

This interview came in the immediate aftermath of Rodón's battle with the orange haze, though.

Crossing our fingers the effects have been somewhat normal, and that the left-hander isn't fighting one of Willie Calhoun's trademark smog headaches.