DID YOU VENMO CARLOS RODON?

Yankees fans are truly the best fans in baseball. They know what they want and they go for it. And this time, it was more than souvenirs and memorabilia. Yankee fans wanted to be sure that their team dished out the cash to land Carlos Rodon. So, they found his Venmo handle and you know what they did? They Venmoed him, just to be sure that he would sign a contract to play in the Bronx.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Rodon said with a chuckle after his Yankee introductory press conference. “My wife [Ashley] and I were in the car and I was starting to send them back and she was like, Carlos, there’s like 400 Venmo requests. My cousin was standing right there and was like ‘hey, we should do something nice for someone for the holidays,’ and that’s kind of something we’re going to do,” reported The New York Daily News.

Sure, he signed with the Yankees, just last Wednesday—a six-year, $162 million deal. But to be sure, fans took to Twitter and things went viral. They were just making sure Rodon wouldn't sign anywhere else. If nothing else, I think the new Yankee pitcher knows just how much his signing means to fans who are looking forward to welcoming in new 2023 baseball season, with a fully stacked rotation.

The newly shaven Rodon is preparing himself for what could be the season of his life. "In 31 starts this past season for the Giants, Rodón was 14-8 with a 2.88 ERA, earning his second consecutive All-Star selection and placing sixth in the NL Cy Young balloting. In a career-high 178 innings, Rodón permitted 131 hits and 52 walks against a career-best 237 strikeouts, leading the Majors with a 2.25 FIP and 12.0 strikeouts per nine innings," reported MLB.com. He will sit second in the rotation behind Gerrit Cole and offers tremendous promise for this Yankee team.

Source: SI.com

By the way Rodon and his wife are putting the Venmo dollars to good use. “We have a kid whose house burned down,” said Rodon. “He’s 15 or 16 years old, we’re going to do something nice for him for the holidays. [They’re] a family in western-central Indiana who doesn’t really have much,"  reported The New York Daily News. 

So now Rodon knows just how passionate we Yankee fans are about our team. And how much he is already loved. Might be a tall order for the Yankee left-hander, but he seems just the kind of guy that can make things happen. He already has had success in Yankee Stadium and says it is one of the best places to pitch. The 30-year-old owns a career 2.16 ERA in Yankee Stadium. Let's hope he make that kind of performance in pinstripes. 

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof