Yankees Rumors: Hal Steinbrenner out on Blake Snell after being 'burned' by Rodón

Carlos Rodón rehabilitated his injury-riddled image with a sterling year in Chicago, befitting of his pedigree as a top pick, followed by another surge in San Francisco. Immediately after Rodón, Scott Boras and the Yankees settled on six years worth of terms to bring the bulldog to the Bronx, a forearm issue and a chronic back problem followed, leading to the lefty losing steam and, uh, relaxing his physique.

Rodón, who showed up to camp early in 2024, slimmed down and touching 97, has five years left to redeem his deal and prove that Boras was seeking a free agency best fit rather than selling Hal Steinbrenner and Co. damaged goods. But, while the left-hander still has a shot at redemption, it's too late for him to affect Blake Snell's chances of being a Yankee.

According to Yankees insider Bob Klapisch -- who's been very clear from Minute One that Marty Mush's Snell sources hold less water than those hole-filled buckets on the Survivor premiere -- Steinbrenner still holds a grudge against Boras for coercing him into falling in love with last year's left-hander.

Will this affect the Juan Soto conversations next offseason? Eh, probably not. The Yankees have a lengthy relationship with Boras, and always seem well-positioned to land his clients. This grudge is certainly Boras-related, but it has more to do with the mirrored volatility of these two pitchers than with his overall money-maximizing strategy.

Yankees' pursuit of Blake Snell scuttled by Carlos Rodón's struggles

Logically, chasing a (potential) mistake contract for Rodón with a long-term Snell deal is the textbook definition of an error most teams would not be able to rebound from. The Yankees aren't most teams, but they've certainly been acting like them recently, self-imposing limitations. With Soto on the horizon, it's just bad business.

Short-term, high-AAV? Yeah, that could've worked for the Yankees ... if everything wasn't taxed at 110% thanks to their many other commitments, including Rodón.

If the Yankees' rotation is going to succeed in 2024, it'll be in large part because Rodón returned to the norms he established in 2021-22, rather than collapsed in on himself like a dying, angry star. The team also believes in their youth movement (Will Warren, Chase Hampton, Clayton Beeter, Luis Gil, Cody Poteet) and their trade deadline possibilities more than they believe in getting burned by another electric, but unmoored lefty entering the back nine.

Every Yankee fan prefers star power over stability, but in this particular instance -- pending Snell's demands cratering -- Hal probably got this one right. It's just good business.