TAMPA — It is not quite accurate that Carlos Rodon was a late bloomer; he was a late learner.
Rodon, a first-round pick in 2013, debuted with the White Sox in 2015 and was fine for six seasons, registering a pedestrian 4.14 ERA through 2020. In December of that year, the 6-foot-3 left-hander was non-tendered — basically, an admission from Chicago that its former No. 3-overall pick did not pan out as hoped — before he re-signed with the White Sox for $3 million.
He proceeded to make the All-Star Game the next two seasons, first with the White Sox and then with the Giants, in large part because of the advanced pitching technology that enabled him to discover what made him unique.
“When I was 12, 13, 14, even 20 years old, I had no idea,” Rodon said Thursday, ahead of his Grapefruit League debut with the Yankees that is expected Sunday against the Braves.
It was not until 2018 or ’19, he said, when technology such as TrackMan began proliferating around the game that he learned about his arsenal. The more over-the-top he released his fastball, the less hittable it became. In his terrific 2022 with San Francisco, the big lefty, on average, spun his four-seamer from 6 feet, 6 inches away from the ground, far higher than most.
The spin and velocity — the offering averaged 95.6 mph — keeps the ball at a high plane. On average, his fastball dropped, from his hand to the plate, 12 inches, far less than the 16 inches an average major league four-seamer dropped.
That old adage about pitchers needing to always keep the ball down has never seemed older. With a pitch that is released high and stays high, Rodon’s fastball buzzes at the top of the zone and misses bat after bat.
“I had no idea how good I was — I didn’t know how good my fastball was until the last few years, when TrackMan started tracking everything,” Rodon, the Yankees’ new $162 million man, said after a bullpen session.
The revelation led to a refreshed pitch mix. Last year, he threw his fastball more than 60 percent of the time. It was the second-most thrown pitch in all of baseball, trailing only the cutter of Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes.
And it was the 13th-most valuable pitch in all of baseball, according to Statcast’s “Run Value” statistic, which essentially measures how effective a pitch is. For reference, Rodon’s fastball was a bit better than Max Scherzer’s slider, which ranked 15th.
The past two seasons — in which he has posted a 2.67 ERA over 55 starts — Rodon has basically abandoned a third pitch, continually pounding fastballs and nasty sliders past hitters. He started mixing in a curveball more toward the end of last season for a bit more variety, a trend that will continue this season.
“I feel like I have to throw more curveballs this year, for sure,” Rodon said.
He has learned what makes him good, and he is trying to tinker with what can make him better.
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