Rodón working on cutter; Cole miffed by HR in spring debut

TAMPA, Fla. -- Carlos Rodón would have preferred to breeze through his three innings of live batting practice on Friday afternoon, rather than serve up four home runs to a group of Yankees Minor Leaguers. He took solace in that none of the blasts would ever appear in a box score.

“I’m always competing; I don’t want to give up bad homers,” Rodón said. “But I’m glad I gave it up to our guys. It can make them feel good about themselves.”

Rodón tossed 53 pitches in Friday’s effort, serving up long balls to Josh Breaux, Agustin Ramirez, Ben Rice and Jose Rojas. Rodón said he had better sequences toward the end of his session, including two strikeouts of top prospect Spencer Jones, while tinkering with his curveball and cutter.

“The effort was good, and I liked how he finished,” manager Aaron Boon said. “I think he got a little competitive because he gave up some hard contact. His stuff is coming out really well, and the shapes are good. The metrics of everything look really good. Overall, it was another good step.”

• Updated projection for the Opening Day roster

The cutter is a work in progress this spring for Rodón, who relied mostly on his fastball (60%) and slider (29%) last season, while also mixing in a curveball (6%) and changeup (4%).

“For me, I went out there and competed, trying to sequence pitches and work on the cutter,” Rodón said. “I dropped in the curveball, got the slider shape more refined. I think I threw two changeups and would like to throw some more. Most of the work was the cutter-fastball-slider-curveball combo. There’s always work to be had.”

• Soto, Rizzo show why Yanks' lineup should be feared

Save it for later
Gerrit Cole was no fan of Daniel Vogelbach’s bat flip and slow trot around the bases in the first inning of the Yankees' 8-4 victory on Friday night, offering a bemused smirk after the Blue Jays designated hitter’s two-run homer over the right-field wall.

“Yeah, what’s the day? Are we still in February? March 1st?” Cole said. “Yeah, he enjoyed that homer.”

Asked if he would remember Vogelbach’s display during the regular season, Cole replied: “I don’t forget a lot of things.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the bat flip was “in the arena” of competition, but acknowledged that Cole “seemed to not love it.”

Don’t ya know?
The Yankees will see a familiar face during their upcoming two-game exhibition series in Mexico City. Robinson Canó has signed with the Diablos Rojos of the Mexican League, who will host the Bombers for games on March 24 and 25.

Canó, 41, last played in the Majors with the Mets, Padres and Braves in 2022. Five of his eight All-Star selections came with the Yankees from 2005-13, a tenure that also featured two Gold Gloves, five Silver Sluggers and a World Series championship in 2009.

Earlier this spring, Juan Soto identified Canó as his childhood idol, revealing that Canó reached out after the Yankees traded for Soto in December.

“That’s a guy who I followed since I was a little kid, and a guy I wanted to be like,” Soto said. “He congratulated me and told me how good it is over here.”