The Guardians announced they’ve selected outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez onto the 40-man roster. He lands a spot for the first time in his career.
Cleveland selected Rodriguez in the third round of the 2017 draft. A right-handed hitter out of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez moved slowly through the minors. He spent his first four-plus seasons at various rookie or A-ball levels. He reached Double-A late in 2022, struggling in his first 28 games there.
Rodriguez unsurprisingly went unselected in last winter’s Rule 5 draft. He put himself on the radar for a 40-man spot with a breakout year in his first full season at the upper levels. Rodriguez spent the bulk of the season at Double-A Akron, hitting .289/.364/.512 in 88 games. He continued that pace after a bump to Triple-A Columbus, where he ran a .280/.376/.560 slash. Overall, the 23-year-old (24 tomorrow) hit .286/.368/.529 with 29 home runs over 565 trips to the plate. While a 28.8% strikeout rate is an alarming figure, he hit for enough power and drew sufficient free passes to earn a 40-man spot.
The impetus for Cleveland is the looming minor league free agent period. Players who have spent parts of seven seasons in the minors will qualify for free agency on Monday unless they’re on a 40-man roster. Cleveland ensured they wouldn’t lose Rodriguez via that process. He has a full slate of option years and could still be sent back to Columbus for the foreseeable future. If he holds the 40-man spot all offseason, he’d have a good chance of making his MLB debut at some point next year.
He’s 23 how is he a veteran
Minor league veteran of 6+ years. Meaning he had the ability to get to minor league free agency. That tends to be an issue with these guys signed at 16/17 out of Latin America. They spend 2 years in DSL, then a year in GCL/AZL, they’re rule V eligible before they get to A ball, and they’ve barely gotten to AA/AAA before they’re minor league free agents. Guys who are drafted domestically are on a much more sensible timeline.
I have to say that I’m skeptical of Johnathan’s ability to do in the show what he did in AAA. I’m always hopeful, of course, but holy smokes he strikes out a lot. The article is complimentary of his walk rate, but it really isn’t that good. We have Rodriguez, Oscar Gonzalez and Jhonkensy Noel on the 40-man and they are all essentially the same player. One skill – power. In the bigs they get eaten up.
Yet somehow the two other players with power that the Guards bailed on — Nolan Jones, Will Benson — thrived elsewhere. CLE FO is solid but they’ve whiffed on their evaluations of these guys
I think Nolan Jones will be a good player, but Cleveland really likes the guy they got back. I think Benson played better than he really is. We’ll see on both players if they really were misses.
I agree. I think it’s fair to wonder what Benson looks like long term just because of how much he struggled before 2022 (although it’s possible he just figured things out), but he was good enough last year that that trade is already a loss in my mind. I don’t see enough with Boyd or Hajjar to make me think they can salvage that.
I have more confidence in Jones being a legitimately good everyday player for the next several years, but getting Juan Brito back could still help a lot. They could have really used Jones last year and they’ll regret giving him up, but I like Brito a lot too so I’m not ready to write that trade off.
I feel that both Benson and Jones are likely to regress this coming year, but your point is well taken. Those guys are a head and shoulders better than the prospect OF’s that remain.
If they had kept Jones and Benson, they could have kept Civale instead of trading him for Manzardo too. They screwed up big time this past year on deciding which of their hitters to keep and which ones to trade.
Hban – I like Civale and I think he will do well for TB but he is a solid 3rd or 4th starter that has had injury issues and is entering his final arb years. To flip him for a well-regarded bat in the upper minors seems like a solid deal. I think this was purely a “sell high” move by Cleveland. We will see if Manzardo pans-out.
Civale’s roll in Cleveland for 2024 was questionable after the emergence of Williams, Bibee and Allen.
Trading Civale for Manzardo was a no-brainer. Do it every day of the week. Civale is an ok pitcher, but Manzardo us a legit top 100 prospect. He will be in our starting lineup next year.
BTW, Manzardo is much better than either Jones or Benson. Look at their ISO and BAbip numbers. Unsustainable. They are both due for major regressions.
The Benson trade kills me.. I don’t think he will be an everyday player but he seems like a fairly high-floor guy. Power, speed, defense. Even if he K’s too much and cannot hit lefties, I’d take those skills off the bench. For whatever reason, they decided to keep Richie Palacios over Benson. Oof.
At least they got a good prospect back for Jones. Pure speculation on my part but I still think that the Jones trade was meant to be a precursor to a Sean Murphy trade.
Indians still regret not trading Lindor to the Dodgers in the package involving Corey Seager