Right-hander Yariel Rodriguez held a private workout today, per reporter Francys Romero. Romero adds that the Red Sox and Padres were the two teams with representatives in attendance to watch the righty, who threw two innings during the workout.
Rodriguez, 27 in March, was declared a free agent by MLB earlier this month after he was granted his release by the NPB’s Chunichi Dragons back in October. Rodriguez spent three seasons pitching out of the bullpen for the Dragons, racking up a 3.03 ERA with a 25.4% strikeout rate in 175 1/3 innings during that time. His 2022 campaign with the Dragons was particularly impressive as he dominated to the tune of a microscopic 1.15 ERA in 54 2/3 frames, with a 27.5% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate.
After his dominant work in Japan, Rodriguez suited up as a starting pitcher for his home country of Cuba during the World Baseball Classic, during which he struck out ten while allowing two runs on five hits and six walks in 7 1/3 innings of work between his two appearances. Following his appearances in the WBC back in March, Rodriguez sat out the remainder of the 2023 campaign as the Dragons placed him on the restricted list prior to granting the righty his release last month.
Public evaluations of Rodriguez are few and far between thanks to the unusual nature of his free agency, but given his unusual youth for a free agent and dominant numbers overseas, it’s easy to see why teams in need of pitching help would be interested in his services, particularly if they believe he can start in the majors. MLBTR ranked Rodriguez #28 on our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list earlier this month, projecting him for a four-year, $32MM contract. Earlier this offseason, Romero relayed a list of ten teams that had shown interest in Rodriguez that included neither Boston nor San Diego, while Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times indicated that the Rays were among fifteen teams that were represented at a workout held by Rodriguez last month.
It’s unclear what level of interest the clubs connected to Rodriguez thusfar this offseason have in the right-hander, though it’s easy to see how the Red Sox and Padres match up as potential fits. Boston has made it clear that additional starting pitching help is a priority for the club this offseason, including the possibility of pairing a top-of-the-market arm with a second, more affordable piece. Rodriguez could make plenty of sense as a secondary acquisition for Boston. Young arms like Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, and Kutter Crawford have all shown an ability to pitch both in the rotation and out of the bullpen, helping to ease the risk involved in signing an arm like Rodriguez, who hasn’t pitched regularly out of the rotation in professional games since 2019.
The Padres, meanwhile, are in need of several starting pitchers after losing Blake Snell, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Nick Martinez to free agency earlier this month. With San Diego reportedly intending to cut payroll this offseason, Rodriguez could make sense as a potentially impactful rotation addition with a lower acquisition cost than top-of-the-market arms like Snell. Rodriguez’s recent history as a bullpen arm seems unlikely to scare San Diego away from a deal with the righty, as Lugo had started just twelve games across his last five seasons of work before making 26 starts with the Padres this year. Martinez also has a history of working both out of the bullpen and in the rotation. His 2023 contract contained incentives accounting for both possibilities, further demonstrating the club’s willingness to get creative when it comes to arms with experience both starting and in relief.
Worth a gamble?
No. Stay in NPB.
Who is Yariel Rodriguez? Sorry, name doesn’t ring a bell.
He’s that player from Cuba.
28% k rate and 8% walk rate in japan. Those numbers go the other way for sure is a bullpen piece with a 22%k rate and 10-11% walk rate worth 8M per over 4? Whats his pitch arsenal and FB average? Does he have a more common asian pitch like a fork or gyro? That might help some but those workd stage numbers while small sample size dont look good
Gyro ball is mere myth! A filthy fork ball is another story.
Filthy Fork, sounds like a Coitus meme or movie lol
K rates for pitchers moving from Japan generally increase because of differences in hitters approaches. Most recent example was Senga, who went from a 9.8 K/9 in Japan in 2022 to 10.9 in MLB in 2023.
Lord – Good stuff, I didn’t know that. Thank you!
Ever hear the saying you get what you pay for? Sox need to buck up and get 2 guys that can immediately slot into the top 3/5s of the rotation. Enough messing around with these bullpen-starter dart throws.
Generally the worst long term contracts are always pitchers. Plenty of Strasburg type contracts. Spending a lot on pitching doesn’t guarantee you anything. If it did Chris Sale would have had great numbers the last couple years.
Iverbure – The Sale contract got Boston a ring. That’s something and signing SPs when you have an idiot manager who has no idea how to run a pitching staff is far more risky than the pitchers that are contracted.
The trade for Sale helped get the ring in 2018. The current horrible Sale contract came after the 2018 season. Dombrowski could have waited to see how Sale pitched in 2019 before offering the long-term contract, but he didn’t. I liked Dombrowski. He made a lot of great moves, but the Sale contract was not one of them.
suit – As usual I agree with you 100%.
With all the medical concerns from the prior season, it was a huge gamble to give Sale the extension so quickly.
Someday I’d like to hear directly from Dombrowski as to what he was thinking about this.
As a joke, someone replaced his name plate with Dumbrowski on that day?
Fever – Seriously? You have no recollection of what really happened in 2018 and 2019? Let me remind you.
Idiot front office wants a minority manager so they hire the unqualified Joey (oops I mean Alex) Cora. He’s a bench jockey his whole career and his only claim to fame was his cheating in 2017 for Houston as their BENCH COACH not manager. Later he is convicted for cheating and sentenced to 60 games in baseball jail rather than a life time ban as he deserved.
2018 starts and the rookie manager proves he has no idea what he is doing. Sale is pitching just like Sale always pitchers, with his hair on fire and max effort. He is beyond dominant through the all-star break and gets the all-star game start for the AL.
Enter Cora the MORON. Cora knows that Sale has a reputation for tailing off in August/Sept compared to his first four months each season so like Nuke LaLoosh he starts to hurt the team by THINKING!! Sale starts the all-star game on July 17th with an era of 2.23 and a WHIP under 1.o. He pitches on July 22nd vs DET and goes 6 shutout innings with 9 Ks and 2 hits no walks. Gets the win. Starts on July 27th vs MIN and goes 6 shutout innings with 3 hits and 2 walks Boston wins the game but Sale doesn’t get the win thanks to the offense. They score after he comes out.
At this point Sale has a 2.04 ERA and is leading all pitchers in everything. He’s a lock for the Cy Young and Boston is 72-33 with a 5 game lead over the Yankees and the third place TB Rays are 18.5 games back. Boston has things under control so Cora has a brainstorm and decides to REST Sale and creates a fictitious problem (he claimed Sale had left should inflamation) and sat him in hopes of him avoiding fatigue like in the past. His next start was on August 12th roughly 2 weeks after his July 27th start. He pitched one of his most memorable games that day. He went 5 innings and struck out 12 batters and if Devers had done his job and fielded a routine ball he would have had a no hitter but Devers error wasn’t recorded as an error so he had a 1 hitter and only threw 68 pitches when Cora yanked him. He might have tied or beaten Clemens 20 K game had he not been pulled. Other than Devers misplay, he was dominating the other team (BAL) and I jumped out of my chair when Cora pulled him. After the game he said it was precautionary. WTF? If I was Sale I would have cold cocked him at the press conference but Sale simply rolled his eyes and glared at the lying sack of you know what. During Sale’s next bullpen session he made the mistake of saying his should felt a little bit tight and that led to a second IL stint because Cora as an inexperienced manager who knew nothing about pitching wanted to error on the safe side. What he did was take the Cy Young away from Sale, create a gap in his workouts that cause him to regress back to nearly a Spring Training situation with his arm and destroy an astounding season for a great pitcher.
When Sale returned from this unfounded IL stint on 9/11 he was destroyed because he was only allowed to pitch 1 inning. His 1.97 ERA had gone to waste, his momentum from July was gone and he was being treated like a fragile commodity when there was NOTHING wrong except he had laid off too long to keep his sharpness. Sept 2018 was a joke thanks to Cora. He pitched.26 pitches then 42 pitches in his first two games back. Boston had won the division and was coasting so the inexperienced Cora thought it was smart to dial down his stud pitcher and expected him to pick up where he left off after the long lay over. It showed that Cora had no idea what he was doing and should NEVER have been hired to manage a team.
Sale’s last two starts in Sept were nothing like his regular season appearances and Cora was the entire cause of the problem. Sale didn’t have a bad shoulder, he had a bit of fatigue in it in late July and basically sat the rest of the season. He wasn’t sharp in the post season due to the layoff and Cora kept pushing his INJURY when there was none. It was a simple screw up by CORA and he once again was lying about what happened.
As Sale went into the off season, he was FINE. Dombrowski knew he was a free agent in 2020 so he decided to extend the healthy Sale in March of 2019. He gave him a below market value deal that Sale accepted. Price was making $32MM and Sale’s AAV was $25.6MM which was quite reasonable for a guy who started back to back all-star games as a Red Sox.
There were NO MEDICAL CONCERNS when DD signed Sale. Only the BS that Cora pulled in 2018 when he thought he was being smart by resting Sale and it totally back-fired. Cora should have been fired for making such a huge mistake and lying about it. But teflon man survived and painted Sale as an injury risk when he wasn’t.
As a follow-up, Sale signed in March about the time Cora announced that the pitching staff was being asked to start spring training 2 weeks later because the off season was so short. The off season was over 100 days!!!!
That is more than enough time off for a pitcher who throws up to 300 innings and nobody on the Red Sox came close to that number. That 2 week delay set back the schedule so Boston didn’t have their pitchers ready for spring training games and had to improvise. Sale, Price and Eovaldi got two starts in Spring Training prior to the opener in Seattle. Eovaldi got hurt and went on the IL. Sale survived but he and Price struggled to open the season. On March 28th he gave up 7 ER in 3 IP and not because he was hurt but because he didn’t have sufficient prep time to be ready to start the season thanks to Cora. By April 16th Sale’s ERA was a ridiculous 8.50 thanks to Cora. Cora announced on TV that he was going to change Sale’s mechanics to help him improve his pitching. This is coming from a know nothing MORON who doesn’t know the first thing about pitching. That decision by Cora ENDED Sale’s career with Boston. The new mechanics put new stress on his elbow and while Sale got back in a groove as he got to the number of innings he usually pitched in Spring Training, he wasn’t as dominant as years past thanks to the late start. By June 15th he was still healthy 4 months after signing the new contract and his ERA was down to 3.49 It looked like things were going to be ok at mid June and by mid July clearly the new mechanics were causing problems for Sale. By August 13th they shut Sale down due to stress on his elbow from his new mechanics.
At that point, Sale was damaged goods thanks to Cora intervening with his opinion on Sale’s mechanics. The contract had been signed with a healthy Sale and now the whole Cora mess came to a head as Mookie confronted ownership about their racism issues and Dombrowski was asking to sign Mookie for a fair market price. The result was the end of a dynasty. Boston fired DD destroying the future of the Red Sox. Ownership made Mookie and Price personas non grata. Sale was put on the IL to try therapy instead of an immediate TJ surgery which should have happened. The three amigos got put in place to handle things and they didn’t. Then Bloom got hired to get rid of the upstart Betts and Price who dared challenge the integrity of the owners. Bloom, being way over his head, made the first possible deal with his old mentor and got spanked badly in the deal taking three worthless players for Mookie when the demand for him was lowest. COVID hits which reduces payroll when Price chooses not to play bringing the total payroll under the CAP and resetting the counter for 2021.
That’s what happened with Sale. He was signed while completely healthy and he got ruined by a late start Spring Training followed by a mechanics change mid season that stressed out the elbow and caused the need for TJ surgery. Unfortunately, DD got fired so the surgery got delayed 8 months which cost Sale yet another year of service for the Red Sox.
DD made a GREAT deal for Sale because he was NOT hurt. Cora changed an elite pitcher’s mechanics mid season and caused TJ surgery to be needed. The front office was turned upside down due to Mookie’s confrontation with ownership that led to DD’s firing. That domino caused the Sale surgery to be delayed and an extra year to be lost.
The Sale signing was below market value. He will have played for an AAV of $23MM for 8 years with Boston. If you could sign any elite pitcher for an AAV of $23MM for 8 years you would do it.
The facts have been so polluted by Cora’s lying and the exaggeration of what actually happened in 2018 that Sale gets a bad rap and so does DD. None of it’s true. The bad rap solely belongs to the devil in a Red Sox jersey. Yep, CORA.
TF – I love your passion!! Great post, thank you.
Only one thing we do know for certain. Remember the ’99 All Star Game when Pedro overthrew and hurt himself in doing so?
Well in the ’18 All-Star Game Sale did the EXACT same thing. He threw only 9 pitches, but was overthrowing so much that he reached 100.7 MPH which was the hardest he had thrown in 8 years. So not only did he throw at a ridiculously high velocity, he didn’t even ramp it up first because he threw so few pitches knowing he’d go only one inning.
It’s probably not a coincidence that he managed only two starts after that All-Star Game before getting shelved.
He threw 9 pitches over an 11 day period, then managed only two starts after that before going on the DL. Pretty sure it was ’99 Pedro all over again.
Wow. I didn’t remember all that detail, but I remember Sale being shaky at the end of 2018. I remember being surprised Dombrowski signed him without getting a further look at him in 2019.
KD: I haven’t been able to find anything about Sale having his mechanics changed and what the change was. Can you provide something? I did find the following article:
“But the Red Sox might have been able to see [Sale’s] breakdown coming:
2017: He looked like a Cy Young winner, until he wore down over the final two months, which now looks like the first real trouble. Sale led the league with 214 1/3 innings, then added 9 2/3 innings in the postseason. He posted a 5.01 ERA in his final 10 games.
2018: He was shut down with shoulder inflammation in August and September. After the Red Sox won the World Series, with Sale getting the last out, they extended his contract with one year remaining on it.”
si.com/mlb/2020/03/20/chris-sale-tommy-john-surger…
The workout was at the Padres facility in the Dominican Republic. From what I have read he has been working out there since leaving Japan earlier this year.
His workout earlier was at the Padres facility as well and more than 15 teams showed up. I think he is living in Najayo and that is the closest MLB facility,
That contract prediction is ridiculous! 4 years at 8 mil a year for a reliever from JAPAN! Top end relievers in MLB don’t get that!
1 year contract at maybe 5 mil with an option!
Only a large market team will pay that.
We have seen pitchers come from Korea and Japan and sign multi year deals
Top-end MLB relievers do get deals like that, and better.
The key word is MLB relievers….not unknown maybe’s.
MOB said, “Top end relievers in MLB don’t get that!” (4/$32M) That’s not correct.
Also, while an NPB pitcher will have more variability around their expected performance, they’re not completely “unknown maybes.” Enough pitchers have gone back and forth between the two leagues to have a decent understanding of how talent translates.
Rodriguez was a starter for Team Cuba in the WBC. He expected to be a starter here too. He hits upper 90 and has 3 plus pitches. SO rates from Japan hold up well when pitchers move to MLB. See Senga, Ohtani, and Darvish.
“Evaluators who have seen Rodriguez suggest he could stick as a starting pitcher, with one indicating he could command between $30MM and $50MM as a free agent.”
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/2023-24-top-50-free-age…
Reynaldo Lopez just got 3/30
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/braves-sign-reynaldo-lo…
Scroll down on the link below for highest paid relievers. Have to get to about #40 before you drop below $10 million
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/le…
Great info, BIL! Thanks for doing the legwork.
So..yer saying that contract is now out of the padres price range? …perhaps another loan
Again, they are not having financial difficulties. Good lord……
Yes they are and money bags no longer in picture…
Bruh…”money bags” he has a name, Peter Seidler. While, yes he did pass away, his family and the trust that was set up have kept the team in the family’s control.
Too soon for us Padre peep’s bruh, too soon!
Nick Martinez got that recently. Rodriguez is better.
“…thanks to the unusual nature of his free agency, but given his unusual youth for a free agent…” What does unusual youth mean?
He meant Musical Youth
Based on the writing, sounds like he didn’t pass the dutchie…hahahaha
A Pass the Dutchie reference – What a nice surprise!
Or Stan Musial youth?
Most people aren’t free agents after their age 25 season. Usually it is people 28 and over
But dude is 27…
He’s actually 26, and his last season was considered his age 25 season according to fangraphs and BBREf (not sure how they decide to make it his 25th or 26th year but thats how they labeled it *shrugs*.) Still relatively young for a FA.
Scratch that, his last year played is 2022 not 23. My bad on that. Still relatively young I guess lol.
You got me there, More Relievers…I stand corrected. Still I want clarification on unusual youth, most youths are unusual…hahahaha
You are definitely right on that one buddy! Lol
If the player’s birthday is before June 30th, that is his age (A) season. If after June 30th its his age (A+1) season.
Lets see if I can explain that better. Rodriguez is 26 now and was born in March, which is before June 30th, so next season would be his age 27 season.
If he was born in July-November 24th, he would be going into his age 26 season.
Average free agent is 30 years old.
Right on, BaseballisLife…for some reason that makes more sense.
@baseballislife
Thanks for the information man, I wasn’t sure on the exact age of average free agents but I knew it was usually older than this guy is. Also, thank you for explaining how they determine which “age” season a player is going into. It was something I was always mildly curious about but for some reason didn’t look it up.
@outofline, that’s what I was kind of suspecting as well. He’s spent most of his time in Japan as a reliever so it makes sense. I think he could really be a late inning weapon for someone. Although I wouldn’t be too shocked if a team that is in dire need for SP depth stretched him out to fill in the back of the rotation or make him a “swingman”.
It means that it’s rare for guys to be unrestricted free agents with no posting fee or IFA bonus restrictions at 26 (ie only 1 year older than Yamamoto)
He’s likely a bullpen piece but he’s got a legit chance to be a dominant closer
The stuff should play, but he def comes w some risk
Just the two teams. Does this clown and his agents realize there are 30 teams in the league
He threw for 15 teams back in October. Not sure why the pads and Sox got a private one but there is said to be widespread interest.
I’m guessing this means they are not necessarily finalists but displaying a level of interest that goes beyond those other clubs
Not at that price.
2 months ago Cuban right-hander Yariel Rodriguez impressed on Tuesday in his first tryout with more than 15 major-league teams watching in the Dominican Republic. The 26-year-old showed nice velocity, pitch movement and spin rate after six months without playing in a game. He features a fastball, slider, curveball, splitter and change up in his repertoire, with his fastball averaging 96.2 mph.
twitter.com/francysromeroFR/status/171206316620351…
Orioles need to be all over this
If my Pads don’t get him, I genuinely hope the O’s do.
Let Ruben Niebla-lize him…he knows how to cook talented pitchers with some spice.
I only know about Rodriguez because of Dan Pleasac talked about him a few weeks ago
Lefty: What is that Orioles starting rotation as of now?
I don’t know but Rodriguez could be another Cano
I’d say Kremer, Bradish, Means, Grayson and DL Hall if the season started today? Not bad, but could use a solid 1 or 2? Then again, who couldn’t!
Guy has a kwERA of 4.29 in his whole career
From what I can see, he’s only throwing top speed of 93 mph, which is decent but against good hitters, if he doesn’t have good control, is still going to get hit. I also can’t get a full read on his GB% but he seems like an extreme GB pitcher based on the data from 2023.
According to this site, he throws the following:
Fastball – 46%
Slider – 3%
Cut Fastball – 26%
Knuckle Curve – 4%
Changeup – 3%
Splitter – 10%
Two-seam Fastball – 8%
bo-no05.hatenadiary.org/entry/2021/12/25/131928
His fastball averaged 96 in his showcase
Why not put whatever money it would take to get this clown into a real SP so the talent level actually rises. I’m tired of the Bloom mentality of going cheap and taking risks. Go get real talent then if you have extra money, gamble. Don’t start out gambling.
This screams as a Preller, hot stove, signing.
Between Martinez and Suarez the last two years this definitely is something the padres would do. To be fair both of those guys came back from Japan and pitched well for them. Both got 1 year opt outs and were resigned by the padres. Martinez got another 1 year opt out and is a free agent again. Suarez got a longer deal with incentives to save games as the belief was he would take over that role once hader became a free agent.
According to Werner they are full throtele so maybe this part of leaving no stone unturned and this is just part of the process..i for one am glad they at least showed up..its thier job to look at these guys..all of em..let em do it.
Agreed. Breslow basically said at his introductory press conference that there are many ways to build a roster and they will leave no stone unturned.
suit – I agree with you 100% as usual. Who knows, dude could turn into another Nestor Cortes. I don’t think anybody would complain about that.
As long as these types of transactions are appetizers, and not the main course.
Padres = Last place
3rd place bruh! The cellar belongs to the Rockies!
Sneks don’t care about you’re first place prize.
Why, if a valuable contributor, was he blocked from returning to the NPB. Red flags fly high.
Preller will sign him 4y/$60M (back loaded).
MISSING FROM THIS ARTICLE*****
Japan Times reported that he refused to go back to Japan (I’m guessing because they have an extradition treaty):
“Overseas media reported on Rodriguez’s defection from Cuba and that he would be seeking a move to MLB, this year. Chunichi, however, placed him on Nippon Professional Baseball’s restricted list, making him unable to sign in MLB.”
Perhaps thats old news as reporting from a week ago states he was released from his npb contract and declared a free agent by mlb
si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/news/emerging-cuban-…
Link show aforementioned reporting
sounds more like a Chaim Bloom type signing to me. I was hoping the Red Sox would be on some PROVEN TOP MLB SP.
Randy – It will happen, have patience. You know I wouldn’t be this confident without good reason.
Sox will sign a top starting pitcher by Jon Lester’s 40th birthday, count on it!
Fever – If you are suggesting you have inside information just say so. You don’t have to share it just confirm that it will happen.
This Y Rodriguez doesn’t have good numbers. He is a reliever with control issues. Just what every team needs!!!
Whoever said it looks like a Bloom signing, I agree. Low cost, low impact who cares signing. A guy who may never impact a single Red Sox MLB game.
Being optimistic is great Fever but promising a big time SP with all the cloak and dagger, that’s really odd. I had to look up Lester’s birthday (Jan 7th) to understand your insightful commentary about when Boston will land a PROVEN TOP MLB SP.
By JAN 7th there probably won’t be any left so your comment is very low risk. They will either get one or fail by JAN 7th. Seems reasonable.
With Devers playing 3B I see no PROVEN TOP MLB SP coming to Boston. I’m glad you are optimistic. If you ever pitched, would you want Devers at 3B behind you on the mound? I sure as crap wouldn’t!!! I’d chew him out every time he misplayed a ball and I would harass him in the clubhouse about being selfish and hurting the team so he can play a position he’s not qualified to play.
Are baseball players now so politically correct that they don’t speak their minds? Wow have things changed. The whole clubhouse should surround Devers and tell him to burn his glove and figure he’s the DH for the next decade.
TF – It’s impossible for ANYONE to have inside information, because it takes two to tango and cash.
No matter what the Red Sox intentions are, there’s no way to guarantee any particular player because there’s always stiff competition for the best ones.
What happens if both John Henry and Steve Cohen instruct their staff to be the top bidder on Yama no matter what? Eventually one of them will have to back down, that much is certain. Therefore it’s impossible to predict which player the Sox will sign.
But between Yama, Shota, Ohtani, Burnes, Snell and Montgomery I do feel very confident one of them will end up in Boston.
What happens if both John Henry and Steve Cohen instruct their staff to be the top bidder on Yama no matter what?
======================
I said that 40 years ago with Steinbrenner. I was okay with driving up the price for the Yankees, but it is a fools’ errand to try to outbid the fattest wallet in the auction house. Let Cohen, Cashman, Preller, and the LAD pick off the top four, and then out-muscle the 2nd tier teams for the remainder.
Joe – I don’t see Preller dropping more than $200K on a FASP unless Soto is traded.
And I think several other teams could be factors in the premium bidding, Rangers and Jays and Giants and Cubs immediately come to mind.
Woops …. obviously I meant $200M not $200K. Haha!
I’d pitch for $200k
I’d do it for 100k
“Meanwhile” can’t come in the middle of the sentence; it has to come at the start.