Andres Chavez
The lights are always a little too bright in the Bronx, and for Yankees lefty Carlos Rodon, they were blindingly harsh during that 2025 postseason exit. We all saw the stiffness and the lack of command and conviction. Finding out he had bone spurs in that million-dollar left elbow wasn’t exactly a shock, but it was a massive reality check for a rotation that lives and dies on high-octane arms.
Surgery in mid-October was the only move because you can’t pitch in this league with loose bodies in your joint. Now we are five months deep into the recovery, and the buzz coming out of Tampa is finally leaning toward the optimistic side. Rodon is moving past the lonely hum of bullpen sessions and is ready to take the next step, according to Mark Sanchez of the New York Post: pitching live batting practice.
The Physics of a Clean Joint
Rodon himself admitted that the arm feels fundamentally different now that the “loose bodies” are gone. He told reporters at Steinbrenner Field that the range of motion is a whole new world for him.
“It’s different. Things have changed since last year or since the last few months,” Rodón said, per Sanchez. “I’m still trying to figure out how everything moves again and just find the [pitch] shapes.”
That is a terrifying and exciting prospect for a guy who punched out 203 hitters last year. If he was sitting on a 3.09 ERA while compromised, imagine what happens when he can actually finish his pitches.
“There’s a lot more movement now. With the arm, there’s a lot more space it covers,” Rodón added.
A Delayed Ascent to the Bronx
We have to be realistic about the calendar here. While Gerrit Cole is already through his third live session, Rodon is playing catch-up. He is slightly behind his fellow rehabber, which keeps that late April or early May return date locked in.
The Yankees can afford a slow burn in the spring if it means they get the vintage version of the lefty for the dog days of summer. He still needs to prove he can retire MLB-caliber hitters and stretch that pitch count back toward a starter’s workload. Last season proved that this team lacks a margin for error when their stars are in the dugout instead of on the mound.
The Verdict on the Southpaw
The narrative around Rodon has been a rollercoaster since he first put on the pinstripes. One minute he’s the savior, the next he’s a question mark wrapped in an injury report. But this surgery feels like the hard reset he desperately needed to stop “managing” the pain.
If that elbow is truly free of the debris that hampered his finish last year, the rest of the American League is in serious trouble. A healthy Rodon isn’t just a luxury for the Yankees; he is the difference between a deep October run and another off-season spent explaining away a collapse. By the time the calendar flips to May, we aren’t going to be talking about bone spurs—we’re going to be talking about a guy who finally looks like the monster the Yankees paid for.
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