NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Rodón remembered back to last year.
“I couldn’t really bend my arm. I couldn’t button a shirt,” the New York Yankees left-hander said. ”I couldn't scratch my face. I couldn't take a drink of water. ... I could definitely never comb my hair."
Seven months after elbow surgery, the 33-year-old is set to return to a major league mound Sunday at the Milwaukee Brewers. While he feels a lot better, it's not like when he reached the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox a decade ago.
“That’s almost a virgin arm then,” he quipped.
Rodón is 93-72 with a 3.73 ERA in 11 major league seasons, including 37-26 since signing a $162 million, six-year contract with the Yankees in December 2023.
He was 18-9 with a 3.09 ERA last season despite an ailing arm. His four-seam fastball velocity, which averaged 95.3 mph in his first season with the Yankees, was 94.4 mph in the first half last year and dropped to 93.8 mph in the second half.
“He was great last year. So, just had to do it a different way. He didn’t have the range of motion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But I think if you talk to major league pitchers, especially ones that have done it for a while, you’re kind of always dealing with different stuff. So credit to him for being able to navigate it last year and with excellence.”
Rodón's fastball velocity dropped to 93.4 mph in his Division Series start against Toronto, when he allowed six runs and lasted just 2 1/3 innings.
“They were mending to him every day to get him to post,” pitching coach Matt Blake said.
Rodón said his elbow deterioration occurred over three-to-four years. He was willing to tolerate the pain to get through last season.
“Did it hurt? Sometimes sure, pitching, but I’d rather go out there and compete," he said. “I was throwing well, so I couldn't just say, 'Oh, I can't pitch,' but it was manageable.”
Rodón had surgery Oct. 15 to remove loose bodies in his left elbow and shave a bone spur, then had a setback in late March when he felt tightness in his right hamstring while throwing at the Yankees’ Florida complex.
As part of his rehabilitation, he had a pair of platelet-rich plasma injections.
“The first one was early. I really remember it because it was vivid because my arm felt like it got ran over by a bus,” he said.
He reported to spring training in the mid-to-upper 250-pound range, about 10 pounds above his target, but figured the weight would come off as he readied for his return.
“I guess a happy offseason," he said with a laugh. "I enjoy food.”
Rodón made three starts during a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment that started April 24 and had a 3.38 ERA and 16 strikeouts while allowing three walks and three homers in 16 innings.
He threw 83 pitches in his last outing and will have a limit of about the same against the Brewers.
“Not as daunting as Tommy John’s surgery,” said Rodón, who had his UCL repaired in 2019. “You never want to go under the knife, for sure, but it’s good to be at the end of the road.”
Blake notices the difference in Rodón's mechanics.
“You can see there’s just a little more freedom of motion in the arm action,” he said. “It looks a little easier. It’s not as much body creating the power.”
But with that added motion, Rodón has to work to regain command.
“I’m happy with the recovery,” he said. “So just keep going.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
FILE - New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón delivers against the Boston Red Sox during the first inning of Game 2 of an American League wild-card baseball playoff series, Oct. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked military facilities and airports in Saudi Arabia as the war between the kingdom and the Iran-backed rebels escalated.
Israelis are marking the third anniversary of the Palestinian militant Hamas group’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which sparked a devastating war in Gaza, while for Palestinians the anniversary ushers in yet another day of misery.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage is available here.
The Houthis used ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, to attack military facilities and airports in Saudi Arabia, the rebels’ military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said Wednesday on social media. He didn’t provide evidence for the claim.
The attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh, with missiles, he said.
Flights to and from the airport were disrupted, with planes holding away from the airfield, according to Flightradar24, a tracking platform.
Also attacked were Abha airport, military facilities in Khamis Mushait and other “critical sites” in the cities of Najran and Asir, Saree said.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said they intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the rebels north of Riyadh.
The attacks came as Saudi Arabia and its allied Yemeni forces launched a major ground and air offensive on the Houthis on Yemen’s western coast and elsewhere in the country.
The Houthis also said they launched a missile strike early Wednesday against Yemen’s port city of Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government.
An Associated Press journalist heard explosions that rocked the city around 2 a.m. local time.
Israelis gathered at intersections, bomb shelters and the site of a music festival that Hamas-led militants overran on Oct. 7, 2023, to mark the anniversary of the attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. The attack also sparked the war in Gaza and led to a series of conflicts across the Middle East.
“Every morning, you wake up and there is just endless missing,” said Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son, Sean, in the attack.
For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of misery and difficulties after an Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Most of the population, about 2 million people, lives in vast, squalid tent camps, with large parts of the strip’s cities reduced to rubble. More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military, and despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.
“Since October 7th, we have lived a life we never imagined,” said Gaza City resident Walid Akram. “We witnessed death, destruction, and bombardment that we had never known before."
Hamas has portrayed the Oct. 7 attack as a response to decades of Israeli military occupation, land seizures and settlement construction. No events were expected Wednesday in Gaza
Three years after Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the city of Rafah, which used to be home to a quarter million people, lies in ruins.
The Israeli military has razed the southern city and other towns and districts to the ground, satellite imagery shows.
Demolition, using bulldozers and explosives, has continued since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal was reached a year ago.
Gaza’s devastated landscape is just one of many wounds that the enclave’s 2 million Palestinians have endured since the Israeli campaign that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. More than one out of every 10 people from Gaza’s prewar population has been killed or wounded by Israeli fire.
With almost the entire population homeless, the coastal territory is now effectively one of the world’s most populated tent cities.
An Israeli drone strike killed one older man and wounded seven other people in southern Gaza on Wednesday, according to health officials.
Dr. Mohamed Saqr, a manager at Nasser Hospital, told The Associated Press that one of the injured was in critical condition.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Houthi supporters chant slogans during an armed tribal rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
People visit a roadside bomb shelter where people were killed during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack along the Israel-Gaza border, as the country marks the third anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Houthi supporters carry their rifles while attending an armed tribal rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
People mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
