Yankees' Carlos Rodón sent for tests as injury setback worsens

The revisionist history on the Yankees signing Carlos Rodón this offseason is already getting extremely tiresome.

It was a great signing then. Rodón wanted to be here, and represented the fire-breathing No. 2 this rotation as long been missing. It's still a great signing now; the risk was worth the reward.

That said, like every blockbuster move this team has tried to make in recent years, it has not worked out whatsoever through the season's first few months. In fact, it has gone poorly. The results have not been there. And now, the back is barking.

According to Aaron Boone, the back stiffness that threw Rodón off course a few days ago, but didn't cancel his bullpen entirely, has now evolved to "barking," meaning the left-hander has been sent for additional tests.

The process was sound. The player is great! And yet, still, here we are, waiting once again for the man who was supposed to move the needle to actually be around to try to move it.

Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón sent for tests on back injury

It just feels Sisyphean. The Yankees are always trying to push the rock back up the hill. They're always trying to find their way past the Astros. Sometimes, they don't spend enough. Sometimes, they spend in all the wrong places.

And sometimes they make the perfect roster addition, only for that person to disappear for months on end, if not years.

Aaron Boone claimed on Tuesday that the back issue was "nothing but a nuisance." It's also slowed him for a week and sent him for tests.

Even after reports of Rodón's back issues first appeared, it seemed that both he and Luis Severino -- who was being granted extra caution -- would be back in mid-May. That now seems optimistic.

When Rodón ducked down the tunnel at spring training after his inauspicious Yankee debut, he ruminated on the meaningless game and how much pain he still felt in taking the loss.

“I don’t like losing. I tried to tell myself that I paced myself and made some pitches, and then I got humbled a little bit. So I kind of needed that. I got the work in that I needed, so it’s one of those things where I’ll just look forward to the next one. Hopefully I can put together results plus execution and be better than that.”

If we'd have known that would be the only time we'd see him in the season's first few months, perhaps we would've appreciated that attitude even more. He gets us. We're just desperate, tired of waiting to get him, too.