*Photo from the San Francisco Chronicle*
The best starting pitcher left on the market is going to be donning Pinstripes. The New York Yankees and LHP Carlos Rodon have agreed to a 6 year, $162 million deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The deal has been confirmed by the Yankees.
After the first season of a two year, $44 million deal, Rodon opted out of his contract and hit the open market following another fantastic season. Rodon has lots of injury baggage with him, but he has been a consistently strong starter in a mostly healthy 2021 and fully healthy 2022. He finished in 6th place in NL Cy Young voting last season.
The 2022 campaign was the only season Rodon spent with the San Francisco Giants. In that time, he has a 2.88 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, and a league leading 2.25 FIP, throwing 178 innings over 31 starts for the Giants, who failed to make the playoffs with a 81-81 record in 2022.
Rodon was selected to his second straight all star game in 2022, and rounds out what projects to be a pretty good Yankee rotation in 2023. Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino, and Frankie Montas join Rodon in the rotation, with Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt as other options. Jameson Taillon departed in free agency for a deal with the Chicago Cubs.
The 6.2 WAR Rodon posted in 2022 was the second highest among pitchers, trailing only Aaron Nola with a 6.3 WAR in Philadelphia. Rodon had 11 games of at least 10 strikeouts in 2022, setting a Giants record. The .202 opposing batting average was the 4th lowest among NL pitchers.
Rodon has 8 seasons under his belt, split between the Giants and Chicago White Sox. He has a 3.60 ERA, 3.59 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP, making 147 starts and 5 relief appearances while throwing 847 1/3 innings. He has one start and one relief outing in the postseason, allowing 4 runs over 2 2/3 innings pitched.
The Yankees paid $27 million per year to Rodon, passing Chris Bassitt to become the 3rd highest paid pitcher this offseason, behind Justin Verlander with the New York Mets and Jacob deGrom with the Texas Rangers. He hopes to help the Yankees after a 99 win season in 2022.
So far this offseason, the Yankees have added Tommy Kahnle from the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Rodon, also re-signing Anthony Rizzo and Aaron Judge after being swept in the ALCS by the Houston Astros.
Comments
Post a Comment