After signing his big contract with the New York Yankees, Carlos Rodón isn’t off to a fantastic start.

After missing the first half with a forearm injury in his throwing arm, the lefty was making his third start with the Yankees on Wednesday.

He got into trouble very quickly.

Rodón gave them a kiss after expressing his displeasure with it.

In 413 innings, Rodón gave up six runs that were earned. It was the first time in his career that he walked more than five batters and allowed more than six runs.

He signed a six-year, $162 million contract with New York over the summer, which ranks second among pitcher contracts since the 2019 offseason behind Jacob deGrom’s $185 million contract with the Texas Rangers. Wednesday’s poor performance by Rodón is a microcosm of the Yankees in 2023. For the first time since 1990, the Yankees are in last place in the month of July.

It has been difficult throughout the entire season, especially since the reigning MVP Aaron Judge has been sidelined with ruptured toe ligaments. But in the past four games, they might have reached their lowest point yet. The Yankees have a 14-21 record since Judge was placed on the injured list on June 6, which is the fifth-worst mark in MLB. They were a season-high 11 games over.500 at 36-25 when Judge was put on the IL.

Since Judge has been sidelined, the Yankees have scored the third-fewest runs in the league. Their.219 average over that time period puts them in 29th place, and their OPS is the third-worst in MLB. Fans of the Yankees had anticipated that the series against the deplorable Colorado Rockies and the faltering Angels would signal the beginning of a comeback, but they lost both games and risk being swept by the Angels.

The Yankees might miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016 if this happens. They needed to overtake the Houston Astros to catch up, as they were 212 games out of the final wild-card place going into play on Wednesday.