Credit: USA Today

Interest in Carlos Rodón is starting to gather momentum with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins both now circling the free agent starter.

Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Dodgers are looking into the possibility of adding Rodón to their rotation, while the Twins have also expressed an interest, per Dan Hayes and Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic. This comes after Sports Illustrated’s Pat Ragazzo reported earlier this month that the Mets had identified Rodón as a potential option to bolster their rotation.

The fact that the market is starting to intensify for Rodón shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, the lefty has just put together two excellent years where he established himself as a high-end starter in the majors. He posted a 2.31 ERA with the Chicago White Sox in 2021, to go along with a 34.6% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate in 132 2/3 innings.

After the White Sox didn’t issue him a qualifying offer, Rodón signed a two-year, $44 million deal with the San Francisco Giants last offseason. The contract included an opt out if he hit 110 innings. And the 29-year-old was even better in 2022, putting up an excellent 2.88 ERA. He ranked second among major league starters with a 6.2 fWAR, and he led all starters with a 33.4 strikeout percentage and 2.35 FIP.

Rodón was simply stellar last year as he allowed only 131 hits, 52 walks, and 12 home runs in a career-high 178 innings. He held hitters to an average under .200 for the second consecutive season, and earned his second trip to the All-Star Game thanks to his filthy stuff on the mound. In carving out another impressive year, Rodón somewhat silenced some of his critics having pitched a combined total of just 42 innings between the 2019 and 2020 seasons for the White Sox.

Having elected to opt out of his contract with the Giants, Rodón is one of the top free agent starters available this winter and he’s projected to land a six-year, $194,869,320 million deal with an average annual salary worth $32.4 million a year, per Spotrac.com. Like the Dodgers and the Twins, the Mets need to rebuild their rotation with Jacob deGrom, Taijuan Walker and Chris Bassitt having all hit the open market. And, should deGrom sign elsewhere in free agency, then Rodón could be a nice replacement for the Mets given his body of work over the past couple of years, coupled with the fact that he’s still not yet 30 and boasts filthy stuff.