TAMPA — Carlos Rodon is puzzled.
As he continues to recover from elbow surgery, experimenting with the movement in his left arm, he discovered something interesting: his pitch speed actually increased when he relaxed and stopped pushing himself to throw at maximum effort.
This shift in approach became evident during Saturday’s second batting practice of the spring when he extended his workload to two innings and threw 27 pitches.
“I took a step back and ended up throwing harder,” Rodon said. “It’s strange, but I found it easier to control. I’m just going back and forth a bit, trying to regain my rhythm, and remembering how much effort I need to invest in this pitch and its trajectory. It’s a process, for sure.”
Rodon mentioned that he reached speeds of up to 95 mph in backfield sessions but mostly remained in the 93-94 mph range.
The Yankees are optimistic that one outcome of his surgery, which involved removing a bone spur and other loose fragments from his elbow, will be improved velocity. This was particularly crucial since Rodon experienced a drop in speed during last season.
In 2025, his four-seam fastball averaged 94.1 mph. While this was good enough for his strongest season with the Yankees, it represented a decline from 95.6 mph in 2024 and marked his lowest average since 2020.
Although Rodon has significant work to do before he can rejoin the Yankees in late April or early May, people are curious to see how he performs in terms of velocity during real games.
“I’m just aiming to improve,” Rodon said. “Making a big jump in speed can be tricky. You build up gradually; it’s much more natural than suddenly trying to go from 90 to 98 mph. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Of course, there’s little benefit in increasing his speed if he can’t control it. But he’s focused on fine-tuning things as he faces batters more regularly.
As his development picks up pace, he should have the opportunity to pitch every five days.
“I have confidence in his progress,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s actually catching up quickly. He’s responding well to everything. We didn’t rush him; he worked through the adjustments before getting back out there, so he’s on the right track.”
In other news, Jake Bird, vying for a bullpen slot, entered the sixth inning with one out and a runner on first in Saturday’s game. He initially walked the first batter on four pitches but recovered, pitching 1¹/₃ scoreless innings. Meanwhile, Ben Rice managed a left-on-left ground-rule double against Phillies relief pitcher Kyle Backhus.
The Yankees also made further cuts Saturday morning, sending RHP Michael Arias, LHP Kyle Carr, RHP Dylan Coleman, and RHP Dom Hamel to minor league camp.
