1. Last week I wrote Yankees Thoughts titled ‘I Like This Rendition of Carlos Rodon‘ and I still like this rendition. Rodon dominated the Guardians on Tuesday night in the Bronx in similar fashion to his ALCS Game 1 performance and the Yankees won 3-2.
Rodon joked with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman about being 50/50 with fastballs and sliders when he first became a Yankee, and while I’m glad he’s no longer a two-pitch pitcher, it’s not a joking matter. For as bad as Rodon was in 2023 and inconsistent as he was in 2024, he’s been that great in 2025. For a guy who seemed to struggle to get through five innings the last two years, he’s averaging more than six innings per start this season and has pitched every bit like someone who signed a six-year, $162 million.
2. Rodon has been so good that I now expect him to be good when he starts, which is a dangerous place to be given his history. Maybe he has changed for good and this rendition of Rodon is the one we will get more often than not, but I still don’t trust him yet. It’s been 10 great starts and three bad starts for him this year, and it’s going to take a lot more than 10 great starts for me to believe in him. But just the fact that it’s a conversation and a possibility in the future that I could believe in him says a lot from where we were two years ago when he was blowing kisses to fans and turning his back on the pitching coach or being pulled from a start without recording an out or last year when he was out of control emotionally against the Royals in the ALDS and couldn’t keep the ball in the park against the Dodgers.
4. The defense was its usual mess in the seventh inning when the Guardians tied the game. Anthony Volpe couldn’t get to a ground ball that it’s debatable if he should have been able to get to, J.C. Escarra couldn’t get a handle on the ball to even make a throw on a stolen-base attempt, DJ LeMahieu couldn’t field a hard-hit grounder and Trent Grisham booted a ball while fielding it in center field. It’s never surprising when the Yankees’ defense fails them given everything we know about the Yankees’ defense under Aaron Boone, but it’s always frustrating.
5. After the Guardians blooped together the game-tying run in the seventh inning, the Yankees answered with back-to-back home runs from Jazz Chisholm and Volpe. Playing in his first game since April 29, Chisholm went 2-for-3 with the go-ahead home run.
“I didn’t have the best start, so starting the season over,” Chisholm said. “You don’t focus on what happened before. So yeah, this is how I wanted to start the comeback.”
Chisholm was a .181/.304/.410 hitter when he landed on the injured list. For as bad as he had been through the first month of the season — seemingly always trying to hit a home run — his first month stats looked like Barry Bonds’ compared to what Jorbit Vivas and Oswald Peraza provided in his absence. Hopefully the big home run on Tuesday doesn’t send Chisholm back chasing the long ball like his early-season success against the Brewers seemed to do for all of April.
6. Leading 3-1 in the eighth, Mark Leiter Jr. pitched around a one-out walk, and the Yankees still led 3-1 to begin the ninth. With Luke Weaver out for the next month or so, the ninth inning is once again Devin Williams, and once again Williams was a shaky shitshow as the closer.
Williams allowed a one-out double to Carlos Santana when he couldn’t put away the veteran after getting ahead 1-2. He then gave up a two-out RBI single to Daniel Schneeman to put the tying run on base. Schneeman made things even scarier when he stole second to move into scoring position as the tying run. Williams quickly got ahead of Bo Naylor 0-2, but when Naylor forced the count full, I figured nothing good was going to come from his at-bat. But on the seventh pitch to Naylor and the 30th pitch of the inning Williams ended the game with a flyout to left.
“I feel confident,” Williams said. “Santana put up a really good at-bat there and they found some holes, but I felt good overall.”
7. It’s going to be a mentally, emotionally and physically challenging next four-or-so weeks with Williams as the closer and Weaver unavailable. This next month isn’t going to be for the faint of heart. YES should have a disclaimer about the health effects of continuing to watch the game when Williams comes in. Here’s to hoping the Yankees don’t play any closer games until Weaver returns.
8. Chisholm played third base in his return and it looks like that will be the plan moving forward: Chisholm at third and LeMahieu with Peraza playing every once in a while.
“I really thought I was done at third base,” Chisholm said. “I thought I left my career over there with a good stamp, but I guess we’re back again.”
Obviously, the Yankees will look to add a second baseman or third baseman within the next two months, something they have neglected to do since the 2021 season ended.
9. Over the next two months, LeMahieu will try to prove they don’t need to go out and trade for another middle infielder. Just when you think LeMahieu may never get a hit again he goes 4-for-5 with two RBIs against the Dodgers on Sunday night and 1-for-3 with an RBI on Tuesday against the Guardians. Not only is LeMahieu picking up hits, he’s hitting the ball hard and even some of his outs have been hard, like on Tuesday when he hit a 107-mph line drive in the seventh inning. The lineout was hit harder than both home runs by Chisholm and Volpe. I want nothing more than for LeMahieu to be his old self or even resemble his old self every now and again. He’s done that these last two games.
10. Let’s see if LeMahieu can keep his turn-back-the-clock last two games going on Wednesday. It will be Clarke Schmidt against L.L. Ortiz. The Yankees got to Ortiz back on April 23 in Cleveland with four runs over 4 1/3 innings as Ortiz gave up five hits and walked five. I’ll take that kind of performance from the right-hander again.
Schmidt struggled against the Guardians in that same April series: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HR. Coming off of his best start of the season with six shutout innings in Anaheim last week, I would like to think Schmidt will build off of that performance, but Schmidt is a lot like Rodon (at least up until Rodon recently) in that you don’t know what to expect from start to start. That needs to change. I want to write a Yankees Thoughts titled ‘I Like This Rendition of Clarke Schmidt’ at some point.
Last modified: Jun 4, 2025
