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.
“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.Charles Wenzelberg / New York PostIt 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.
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. 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.Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
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