Yanks, Giants battle again for signature

The battle for left-hander Carlos Rodon — MLB’s top remaining free agent starting pitcher — may come down to yet another competition between New York and San Francisco, though there are believed to be a few other teams in the mix.

The Yankees are preparing to make an offer to Rodon, their top remaining target, and seem hopeful or perhaps even optimistic, which shouldn’t come as a surprise the way this winter has gone. The Yankees beat out the Giants (who also are pursuing Rodon) for their own superstar, Aaron Judge, and the Mets kept Brandon Nimmo, also preventing him from going to San Francisco.

While the Yankees liked Rodon from the start, Judge is partly behind the pursuit, as he told managing partner Hal Steinbrenner upon agreeing to his $360 million deal that he’d like to see a couple of improvements.

The Yankees would love to please Judge, who took less money than he could have gotten from San Diego, and presumably from San Francisco, which set the number with that very offer, but likely could have gone higher.

This case is a little different. Rodon was a Giant in 2022, and he thrived in San Francisco, posting a 2.88 ERA and registering 237 strikeouts over 178 innings, while leading the league among qualifiers with 12 strikeouts per nine innings and a 2.25 FIP. But Rodon, who celebrated his 30th birthday Saturday, is from Miami, and the Yankees seem to believe they have a decent or better chance to sign him, too.

Several other teams have been linked to Rodon, including the Rangers, Dodgers, Orioles and Twins. The Red Sox and Cardinals are among other teams surveying the pitching market. Other top starters remaining free agents include Chris Bassitt, Nate Eovaldi and Ross Stripling. Rodon, Bassitt and Eovaldi all have the qualifying offer attached.

Giants baseball president Farhan Zaidi correctly suggested at the start of the winter that it isn’t always easy to lure players to San Francisco unless they are from the Bay Area. They did sign outfielder Mitch Haniger, who is from San Jose, Calif., for $43.5 million over three years. They also brought back Joc Peterson, who’s from Palo Alto, Calif. Judge is from Linden, Calif., two hours away.