Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez has been in contract with Tigers GM Al Avila, manager A.J. Hinch, and pitching coach Chris Fetter in recent days, and Avila and Hinch told reporters (including MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery) that plans are in motion for Rodriguez’s return. The hurler has already started a throwing program and is then slated to work out at the Tigers’ spring facility in Lakeland before embarking on some minor league rehab starts.
As Hinch put it, Rodriguez “has to go through another Spring Training” given all of his missed time, and thus the organization will take a “methodical” approach. For now, Rodriguez is being targeted for a late-August return to Detroit, Avila said. Rodriguez last pitched for the Tigers on May 18, as he spent close to a month on the injured list due to a ribcage strain before he was placed on the restricted list on June 13 due to unspecified personal matters.
The situation took a somewhat mysterious turn earlier this month when Avila and Hinch said they hadn’t heard from Rodriguez, and that the left-hander hadn’t been responding to the team’s overtures. However, Avila said today that “he expressed to me that he’s working hard, his personal situations are being taken care of and at some point he’ll be over that. He’s looking forward to re-joining the team and helping us win.”
The Tigers signed Rodriguez to a five-year, $77MM free agent in November, one of several major transactions made by a Detroit club that felt it was ready to end its rebuild. Unfortunately, the Tigers have stumbled to a 38-56 record, due to both a near-total lack of hitting and several injuries to the rotation. Rodriguez also got off to a slow start (4.38 ERA in 39 innings) before hitting the injured list, and his status on the restricted list has added an unusual twist on a lost season in the Motor City.
Rodriguez’s absence has come at a significant financial price, as he hasn’t been paid during his time on the restricted list. Assuming he does get activated in late August as planned, the southpaw will have lost roughly $5.5MM of his $14MM salary for the 2022 season.
Hello,
Is it ‘contract’ or ‘contact’? Can you please fix the spelling error?
Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez has been in ‘contract’ with Tigers GM Al Avila, manager A.J. Hinch, and pitching coach Chris Fetter in recent days,
Dude come on
What do think it is? Come on, man. Just be happy with the excellent information this site provides us.
How fun are you at parties ?
Gang,
English might not be Josip’s native language and he may be genuinely confused. Let’s not validate ugly generalizations about Americans.
Nah, he’s just being a jackass.
Clown Comment Tomic, I’m sure if you notify MLB trade rumors they will gladly refund the zero money you paid to read the article
At least they will get to make sure he is healthy going into the off season.
I know that the injuries and poor hitting aren’t Hinch’s fault. But I’m wondering if the bloom is off his rose a bit now. Highly regarded as a manager, but when you think about it, he won a title due to cheating. And he wasn’t enough of a leader to stop it. Instead, he did passive-aggressive stuff like try to break the equipment rather than tell them to quit it. Then again, it’s so hard to know who is a good manager and who is not.
I don’t think Dusty Baker is some amazing manager and the Astros are doing just fine with him as the replacement. Baseball is mostly about the players. No manager can polish a turd. It does annoy me how little fire Hinch has, especially after watching Leyland for so many years.
My number one criteria for judging a Manager is how he manages the pitching staff, especially the bullpen (a la Buck Showalter). Another criteria is how he handles rookies.
I give Jim Leyland credit for his one act. Dave Dombrowski assembled a good team in 2006. Magglio Ordonez told a reporter in 2005 that he wanted out of Detroit so he could play for a contender. Worse, after the previous years under Allan Trammell, most of the players had that mindset. Leyland heard it, had a meeting and bluntly told them if they couldn’t win on this team, they couldn’t win anywhere…
How was Jim Leyland better than AJ Hinch? How did Jim Leyland have more fire? More like Smokey Jim Leyland mismanaged the under-performing 2008 Tigers into last place starting game 1, He seemed to quit in May. The 2008 Tigers had better players than the 2021 Tigers.
Study the 1996 vs. 1997 Pittsburgh Pirates. Jim Leyland had more fire? More like Smokey Jim Leyland managed a poor pitching staff in 96 then quit when they traded Denny Neagle for Jason Schmidt.. Gene Lamont reorganized the same pitchers into a very good pitching staff in 97. It was good for the late 90s. The unprepared Leyland then managed the 1999 Rockies to last place then quit because he didn’t agree with that type of baseball.
Alex Cora is
Costed them a third round draft pick too.
Glad to hear that he’s okay and getting ready to resume his career. When they said they didn’t hear from him for nearly a month, I got worried. He had a Ben Zobrist reaction to his marriage issues (which is perfectly fine). I’m just happy to hear he’s taking care of that and is ready to pitch again. Sometimes we forget these guys are human beings and have life (and wife) issues just like the rest of us.
Zobrist’s wife cheated on him with the minister of their church, and he was also a guy that Zobrist had donated a lot of $ to for fundraising..
Eduardo Rodriguez cheated on his wife.
How are those similar situations?
Well for starters, there’s cheating…
What is your source for ERod cheating on his wife?
His wife. Google “Eduardo Rodriguez affair.”
I googled that. All I found was marital issues and a different 48-year old Eduardo Rodriguez that had an affair.
This is the best news the Tigers ever received. Team members held a parade and are geared to win the pennant, either this year or next.. They are even painting the dugout.
The Red Sox can really use him back…..oh, wait, nevermind.
I didn’t think ERod was worth that contract. With his high pitch counts in Boston, I was often wondering if he would make it through 5 innings.
Correct. Plus, who would have guessed that the pitching and defense behind it would be THIS bad for the Red Sox.
That’s not always accurate, because picking up the phone, which is normally easy, isn’t always.
Good, now all you people giving him grief for being awol can shut up.
The Tigers get one of their pitchers back and lose another one (Faedo) for the season due to hip surgery… It’s been that kind of season.
And Pineda just got pulled from today’s game with forearm tightness.
These baseball guys are so weird. Guy has a contract and he couldn’t keep them updated? Not even a text? Nothing? Now he’s so glad to be back and help the team win. Awwwww isn’t that special. We all have problems but it is so easy to keep in touch.
Sounds like it will take 5 weeks before E-Rod is ready to return for the Tigers. I wonder when he starts getting paid again.
Cheated on his wife, takes some time off.. makes sense
You still haven’t provided a source. RyanD44 likely cheated on his wife and got caught so he’s projecting on ERod.
His wife, for starters is the main source. Google “Eduardo Rodriguez affair,” and you’ll see dozens of articles citing the marital affair. It won’t say specifics, but his wife took care of that part.
Pretty sure you’re reading about a different Eduardo Rodriguez lol. Those articles talk about one that is 48 years old.
Now, go check out his wife’s IG (unless she deleted her posts)