Yankees' Carlos Rodón to Get Injection for 'Chronic' Back Injury; No Return Timeline

New York Yankees starting left-handed pitcher Carlos Rodón will soon receive a cortisone injection for a "chronic" back issue, and there is no current timetable for his return.

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relayed the news from Rodón and Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

The Yankees signed Rodón to a six-year, $162 million contract this offseason after the southpaw posted his second-straight All-Star campaign, going 14-8 with a 2.88 ERA and 237 strikeouts for the San Francisco Giants.

Rodón has yet to take the mound for the Yanks this season. The team initially diagnosed him with a mild left forearm strain in March, and he was set to start the 2023 campaign late.

However, manager Aaron Boone said on the Talkin' Yanks podcast on April 11 that Rodón's return was delayed due to lower back tightness.

Some encouraging news dropped on April 28 when Meredith Marakovits of YES Network reported that Rodón threw 22 pitches in a bullpen session.

However, Rodón went for further testing on Thursday, and now there's clearly concern about his health moving forward given the "chronic" label on his back issue.

Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News and Greg Joyce of the New York Post provided more comments from Rodón:

Adding Rodón seemed like a no-brainer move for the Yankees last offseason. They needed another high-quality arm in the starting rotation to finally break through the American League playoffs and make the World Series for the first time since 2009. Rodón seemed like the answer after a tremendous two-year stretch.

The Yankees will be hoping some good news about Rodón emerges in the coming weeks and he'll be able to return. The Bronx Bombers still await the 2023 debut of Luis Severino (low-grade right lat strain) as well.

In the meantime, the 17-15 Yankees are trying to cobble together a staring rotation behind ace Gerrit Cole, who is essentially carrying the team at this point (7-0 in his starts, 10-15 otherwise).