Yankees Holding Back Carlos Rodon Amid Lingering Back Issue

Carlos Rodon is nowhere near returning to the Yankees.

The left-hander has healed from his forearm strain, which landed him on the injured list in March, but is now dealing with a back issue that has put his rehab on hold.

“Rodon wants to throw right now and we’re holding him back until we make sure he sees the doctor, checks all the boxes, because ultimately all we know is whenever we deploy him, we want to make sure he’s good to go for the rest of the way,“ GM Brian Cashman told reporters on Wednesday. “Carlos is frustrated. He wants to throw. He wanted to throw today. We said no.”

According to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, Rodon has tried to throw with the back issue, but It's effecting his mechanics. For that, the Yankees want to play it safe with the starter whom they signed to a six-year, $162 million deal in the offseason.

“He’s going to visit a back doctor tomorrow,” Cashman added. “He can throw. He wants to throw. But at the same time, with communications that we have, he doesn’t feel fully comfortable. There’s a little restriction in there. So we want to make sure that we aren’t missing anything before we completely ramp up and then have to ramp down.”

In addition to Rodon, the Yankees are also missing Frankie Montas (shoulder surgery) and Luis Severino (lat strain) in their rotation.

“Losing [Frankie] Montas, [Severino] and Rodón are huge losses,” Cashman said, walking through the starting rotation. “That was my biggest worry as we broke camp, but obviously with the number of injuries we experienced, maybe some underperformance at the same time with certain guys, as well as having baptized some of the young guns early on on the offensive side, really struggling to score runs. That’s what’s brought us to where we are right now.”

The Yankees have gotten off to a mediocre 17-15 start, which has found them in last place in the American League East.

Part of the reason is that they have a total of 12 players on the injured list, including Rodon.

But with a long season left, it is wise to be cautious with their rehabbing players, which is exactly what they are doing with Rodon.

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