CARLOS RODON REVEALS SHOCKING VELOCITY SPIKE DURING INTENSE YANKEES REHAB PROGRESS
Carlos Rodon reveals he is throwing harder with less effort during Yankees rehab following surgery to remove an elbow bone chip.
The New York Yankees already have Max Fried and Cam Schlittler locked in, along with a rotation that’s clearly built to compete. What’s still uncertain is exactly which Carlos Rodon we’ll see once he’s back, and the same goes for Gerrit Cole. But early signs from Rodon’s rehab suggest the outcome could be better than most anticipated.
Rodon had surgery at the end of the 2025 season to remove a bone chip from his throwing elbow. At his worst this offseason, he struggled with basic tasks like buttoning his shirt, let alone firing the mid-90s fastball that’s defined his career over the last five years.
That image is striking when you consider this is a 33-year-old lefty who logged a career-high 195.1 innings last year. He pushed through elbow pain late in the season just to stay in the rotation. That kind of grit builds trust. Now, that perseverance might pay off in the form of a Rodon with more life in his arm than we’ve seen for some time.
What Rodon’s Rehab Is Revealing
Here’s the part Yankees fans should find genuinely encouraging. Rodon’s been gradually ramping up his velocity, but with an unexpected twist: he’s throwing harder when he actually eases off on his effort. It’s counterintuitive, but it signals that his mechanics are settling back into place.
“I backed off and threw harder,” Rodon told the New York Post. “I was like, ‘OK, that makes no sense.’ But it made it easier to command. It’s just the little ins and outs of pitching, trying to find the stroke again, knowing how much effort in this pitch and the line of this pitch. It takes a little time.”
That statement says a lot. He’s not just telling reporters he feels good; he’s genuinely navigating the complexities of his delivery and discovering something authentic. When a pitcher backs off but gains velocity, it often means the tension is gone; the arm flows more naturally. The bone chip is out, range of motion is returning, and the arm is functioning as it should.
The overall strategy is just as promising. Rodon isn’t rushing from rehab velocity to game speed in one jump. He’s progressing deliberately. “I’m just trying to tick up a little before I get there so I can close the gap of a big discrepancy in velocity,” he explained. “So just slowly building to get the velocity up so when I get in a game, it’s a lot more natural than just going from 90 mph to 98 mph. We’ll see what it does.”
This approach reflects the experience of a veteran who understands that pushing too hard, too fast, often ends with a trip back to surgery.
The Implications for the Yankees
Looking at Rodon’s 2025 stats on Fangraphs tells a story worth noting. He posted a solid 3.09 ERA over 195.1 innings, his career high. His average fastball velocity dropped by 1.3 mph from 2024 to 94.1 mph, yet he put up some of the best results of his career. He clearly pitched through discomfort and still performed at a high level. When fully healthy during the midseason stretch, Rodon was among the elite pitchers in the American League. His strikeout rate dipped slightly, and he faded at the end, but those were signs of managing pain rather than decline.
Now imagine that pain gone, and the lost range of motion restored.
You’re likely looking at a Rodon pitching closer to 95 or 96 mph, with the refined command he’s been honing in rehab, and a realistic return to the rotation around May or June. The Yankees anticipated this scenario. They constructed a starting five designed to handle the innings until Rodon and Cole are ready to take the mound. But if Rodon returns with a freer, harder arm than he has in years, this rotation stops being just good; it becomes a serious challenge for the rest of the league.
The bone chip is out. The arm is loosening up. The Yankees’ best version of Carlos Rodon could very well be yet to come.
TIMBERWOLVES CONFIRM DONTE DIVINCENZO IS OUT FOR THE SEASON WITH TORN ACHILLES
Anthony Edwards injury update, Donte DiVincenzo torn Achilles, Minnesota Timberwolves injuries, NBA playoff injury news.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves just got hit with some tough news right in the middle of their first-round playoff series. They won Game 4 against the Denver Nuggets, 110-96, taking a 3-1 lead, but that win comes with a high cost. Two starters, Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo, both left the game early with serious injuries, and suddenly, the rest of the playoffs feel a lot more uncertain.
The biggest worry is Anthony Edwards. He messed up his left knee late in the first half, landing awkwardly after contesting a shot. He went down right away and needed help getting to the locker room. Tests confirmed what Timberwolves fans feared: Edwards suffered a bone bruise and a hyperextension. There’s some good news here: no ligament damage, but he’s still expected to miss “multiple weeks", according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. That rules him out for the rest of the first round, and maybe even longer.
Edwards wasn’t just the Wolves’ leading scorer; he basically carried them through much of their playoff push. Now, with him out, everybody else has to pick up the slack. The pressure is real, but in Game 4, the team didn’t blink. Ayo Dosunmu came off the bench and dropped a career-high 43 points; it was just the fourth time in NBA history someone had scored 40-plus off the bench in a playoff game. Players like Mike Conley are expected to do even more now, and rotations are going to look pretty different as they scramble to adjust without their star guard.
As if that wasn’t enough, Donte DiVincenzo’s injury makes things even rougher. He went down only 79 seconds into the game. Nobody was near him; he was just chasing his own rebound and ended up tearing his right Achilles tendon. He walked off the court, but soon after, he needed a wheelchair and a splint. The Timberwolves quickly confirmed he’s out for the season.
After the game, Coach Chris Finch sounded gutted. “Completely devastating for Donte. He’s had such a great season. He’s the heart and soul of so many things that we do. You could see the look in his eye when it happened, and you knew. We’ll love him and be there for him.” DiVincenzo has been huge for Minnesota, both shooting from the perimeter and creating havoc on defence.
So now, with two major pieces missing from their backcourt, the Timberwolves are staring down the rest of this series and maybe the playoffs shorthanded. Sure, they showed resilience by winning Game 4 without their main guys, and that 3-1 cushion gives them some breathing room. But this isn’t a minor setback. It’s a test, a big one. Can the rest of these guys keep the ship steady? Game 5 will have a different look, and the pressure’s on for everyone left to step up and keep the season alive.
MARC MARQUEZ WINS CHAOTIC SPANISH GP SPRINT AFTER CRASHING IN HEAVY RAIN
MotoGP history made at Jerez! Marc Marquez takes his 17th sprint win in the first flag-to-flag Saturday race in 2026.
Marc Marquez pulled off a wild comeback to win a rollercoaster Spanish Grand Prix sprint. It was the first flag-to-flag sprint since the format started in 2023, and Marquez turned his first pole of the season into another Saturday win, though it certainly wasn’t straightforward.
He started strong, but things got hairy with five laps to go when heavy rain hit. Marquez crashed out of second, scrambled across the grass, and dashed into the pit lane for his wet-weather bike. He joined Pecco Bagnaia and Brad Binder in the swap, and when Binder made a mistake, the door cracked open for Marquez.
A gutsy pass on Bagnaia with three laps left put Marquez back out front. From there, he didn’t look back, stretching his lead to just over three seconds by the chequered flag.
Bagnaia, who started 15th in the dry, battled his way to his first sprint podium of the year, while Franco Morbidelli came from 18th to snag third for VR46.
Meanwhile, title leader Marco Bezzecchi had a nightmare from the start. A tear-off strip tangled things up, so he bogged off the line and dropped from fourth to 17th. He later swapped to wets but crashed out before the end. His Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin pulled in early with a technical problem.
Alex Marquez briefly grabbed the lead from his big brother, but the rain got him too; he crashed two laps later while leading.
At the start, Marc Marquez got off to a sharp launch, immediately taking the holeshot with the track still mostly dry. Alex wasted no time chasing him, passing Johann Zarco and cutting Marc’s early advantage. Marc played it safe as the weather turned nasty, but with six laps to go, Alex pounced for the lead at Turn 9, and almost instantly, Marc hit the deck at the last corner.
After a quick grass detour, Marc dived into the pits for wets. Bagnaia, Binder, Morbidelli, and Alex Rins followed. For a moment, Binder emerged as the leader with the rest still out on slicks, but those odds didn’t last.
Alex Marquez and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio stayed out on slicks a bit longer, but Alex crashed at Turn 8, and Di Giannantonio finally swapped bikes a lap later.
Fermin Aldeguer hung on with slicks while everyone else had already switched. Up front, Binder held the net lead, but a mistake at Turn 2 opened the door wide.
That put the Ducati factory pair Bagnaia and Marquez on top. Marc dived inside at Turn 9 to grab the lead, never looking back. That makes 17 career sprint wins for him and jumps him to fourth in the championship, now just 24 points from the top.
Binder hung on for fourth, Di Giannantonio salvaged fifth after his late stop, and Raul Fernandez took sixth for Trackhouse Aprilia. Fabio Quartararo was seventh for Yamaha, with Zarco in eighth and Luca Marini grabbing the last point for Honda.
Crashes piled up: Joan Mir (Honda), Bezzecchi, Lorenzo Savadori, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, and Pedro Acosta, although Acosta did remount to finish 12th.
Despite wiping out, Bezzecchi keeps the championship lead, just four points ahead of his Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin.
