Yankees' Carlos Rodon named trade candidate due to elbow injury

Jon Conahan

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Yankees' Carlos Rodon named trade candidate due to elbow injury image

Some New York Yankees fans haven’t been the biggest fans of Carlos Rodon, but it’s a bit tough to see why. 

Outside of his first season with the Yankees, when he pitched in only 14 games, what he has done during his time in New York shows why he’s still one of the better left-handers in baseball. 

While Rodon can certainly be better, and has been at other points in his career, he posted a 3.09 ERA a season ago and made 33 starts.

In his 195.1 innings of work, he struck out 203 hitters. 

There’s a strong argument to be made that Rodon has been the second-best arm in the Yankees’ rotation over the past two seasons.

Despite that, his contract runs through 2028, as he’s currently on a six-year, $162 million deal. He has three years and $83.5 million remaining on that contract, which Stephen Perello of Yanks Go Yard believes is why he’s a trade candidate.

“We're halfway through the Carlos Rodón experience in the Bronx, and by this point, we've seen all sides of the left-hander. In 2025, he looked like a high-end No. 2, posting a 3.09 ERA over 195 1/3 innings. In 2024, he was a solid mid-rotation innings-eater, posting a 3.96 mark, and 2023 was a campaign of injury-plagued misery, as he finished the year with a 6.85 ERA between IL stints...

“Where things get complicated is the recovery timetable from elbow surgery. The soon-to-be 33-year-old isn't expected to miss too much time, but he won't be ready for Opening Day,” he wrote.

Moving on from his salary just to add a player who might not be as good as Rodon would be tough to justify. 

If the Yankees can land one of the best players in baseball, that’s a different story. 

But the reality is, there aren’t a whole lot of arms out there better than Rodon, no matter what some Yankees fans want to say.

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