The Pirates announced that they returned Rule 5 selection Josh Rodriguez to the Indians. Rodriguez, who had been designated for assignment last week, will head to Triple-A, according to the Indians. It cost $25K for Cleveland to accept the 26-year-old infielder back from Pittsburgh.
Baseball America ranked Rodriguez 24th among Pirates prospects before the season and suggested that he could become a big league utility player. In 364 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, he hit .293/.372/.486 and played shortstop. In 14 plate appearances for the Pirates this year, Rodriguez collected a single and a walk while playing second and short.
im ok with that
This pick never seemed to make sense, anyway, unless the Pirates thought it would serve as a wake up call to Ronny Cedeno (as if). There’s no point wasting a Rule 5 pick on a utility player, unless that’s the only hole your roster has. The Bucs have plenty of holes to fill. Rodriguez wasn’t going to add real value this season or next.