Yankees fans are in shambles as 2023 Carlos Rodon returns amid team spiral

Carlos Rodón had a disastrous outing on Saturday that he would probably like to forget. Unfortunately for him, New York Yankees fans won't let him.

The southpaw got lit up for seven runs (six earned) on five hits during Saturday's start against the New York Mets, striking out just four batters in five innings of work. At least he let us know early that he was going to have a bad day, though – Brandon Nimmo hit his second grand slam of the week in the bottom of the first inning to give the Mets an early 4-0 lead.

Rodón gave up an RBI single to Starling Marte in the second inning before surrendering his second homer of the day – a two-out, two-run blast by Pete Alonso – in the bottom of the fifth. Aaron Boone let Rodón stay in to get the final out and finish the inning, but his day would soon be done after 97 pitches over five innings.

The Yankees trailed 7-2 when Rodón exited the game, but managed to add three more runs over the next two innings.

Yankees fans are in shambles as 2023 Carlos Rodón returns amid team spiral

Saturday's start against the Mets was reminiscent of Rodón's disastrous first season with the Yankees in 2023, when he pitched to a 6.85 ERA in 64 1/3 innings over 14 starts as he battled numerous injuries. His unimpressive stats that season were, of course, magnified by the fact that New York had just signed him to a six-year, $162 million contract with a full no-trade clause that offseason after coming off two straight sub-3.00 ERA seasons with the Chicago White Sox and the San Francisco Giants.

Rodón has settled in somewhat since that first season, managing to stay healthy as he pitched to a 3.96 ERA across 175 innings in 32 starts in 2024. He had a 2.95 ERA on the season entering Saturday's game, which the Yankees entered having lost 15 of their last 21 games. But Rodón once again failed to come up big in a game where the Yankees needed him to.

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