Carlos Rodon making strong case for spot in Yankees’ playoff rotation with other decisions looming

Kind of interesting, isn’t it, that Marcus Stroman might actually not be good enough to be one of the Yankees’ four playoff starters?

After all, that was at the guts of the spat between Brian Cashman and Stroman in 2019 when the Yankees did not obtain the righty at the trade deadline. The Yankees GM said in the aftermath that he did not want to overpay in an acquisition because Stroman would have fallen to the bullpen in the postseason.

Stroman reacted with a couple of years of social media attacks on Cashman, especially at times of postseason failure. Cashman and Stroman had to smooth over that history as part of him signing a two-year, $37 million contract .

Yet approaching the three-quarter mark of the schedule, Stroman probably would not be in a Yankee postseason rotation. He has looked like a marathoner out of gas at 20 miles with a 7.56 ERA and 1.000 OPS against in his last six starts. He was pushed back from Thursday to a series finale Sunday against the Rangers to work on mechanics. He feels this is a glitch , not exhaustion, and can be fixed.

Yankees implode in sixth inning, settle for doubleheader split with Rangers

And part of the rest of this season for the Yankees is determining who is in a playoff rotation. Thus, an intriguing 36 hours began Saturday at Yankee Stadium with Clarke Schmidt throwing live batting practice and then Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole starting in a doubleheader leading into Stroman on Sunday.

Schmidt, who threw 20 pitches Tuesday, delivered 25 without a break Saturday . He said the full arsenal he deployed in facing the rehabbing Jon Berti, Anthony Rizzo and Jose Trevino would have produced outs in a real game. Aaron Boone described himself as thrilled with the performance. There is still a discussion when to advance to rehab games and how many, but also a growing belief that Schmidt will return to the rotation by late this month.

Austin Wells, Carlos Rodon power Yankees’ rout of Rangers in doubleheader Game 1

Boone called Schmidt “a top 10 or 15 starter in the league” when he went down with a lat injury. That kind of pitcher earns postseason work. Still, at this moment, the only sure thing — health permitting — is Cole because, well, he is Cole. The pedigree will win out even if he is never the Cy Young of last season.

After the Yankees won the opener Saturday 8-0 over Texas behind Rodon and stellar overall at-bats, particularly from Aaron Judge and Austin Wells, Cole authored one-run ball over 5 ¹/₃ innings in a 9-4 Ranger triumph, getting 26 swings and misses — his most in a game since May 8, 2022.

Cole had a third-inning string in which he allowed single, walk, RBI single before striking out the side to begin a seven-up, seven-down end to his day. He was pulled after 90 pitches as the Yanks stuck with caution and the big picture for a pitcher who missed the first 2 ¹/₂ months with an elbow injury and was in his second start since being skipped due to what the team called full body fatigue.

Cole is still trying to marry endurance, dominance and consistency — the triad that won him the Cy Young — and said he believes he has time before October to do so. But even if he doesn’t, he will be given the ball for a Game 1.

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Everything else is TBD: Can Stroman and Nestor Cortes regather themselves and push back into the October picture? Can Luis Gil, after not pitching most of the last two seasons, make it to the finish line sturdy? And can Rodon continue his recent excellent run in which he is doing the difficult — getting knocked down in New York and rising.

Rodon caromed between unhealthy, unsuccessful and, at times, unprofessional in his 2023 Yankees debut. He said it became a mental game to show, “I’m better than what I put out on the field the year before, and I want to prove that I’m capable of being the pitcher I have been.”

He was good early, followed by terrible, but after 5 ²/₃ shutout innings Saturday he has a four-start run now with a 2.22 ERA and .197 batting average against.

To watch Rodon on Saturday was to see the good and why he still has not gained complete trust. Rodon’s stuff is excellent, especially when dotting his fastball to either corner to open up expanding usage/belief in his changeup. He allowed just three singles.

But Rodon also walked five. That included Wyatt Lanfgord, who did not swing at any of six pitches in the second inning. Langford only swung once at seven pitches while striking out looking to close the third. Rodon barked at Langford to swing. Initially, home-plate ump Adam Hamari seemed to think it was directed at him, as did Boone who raced out. To risk in any way getting ejected in the third inning of a doubleheader opener revealed the fight with emotion that even Rodon concedes he still has.

Can he control his pitches and his mood enough to just benefit from the excellent stuff? The answers could determine if he is getting Game 2 behind Cole in the playoffs.

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