Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told the club’s beat that left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez has been shut down from throwing due to a left lat strain, with Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic among those to relay the news. The lefty will open the season on the injured list but his timeline is unclear apart from that.
Lovullo says Rodríguez will be shut down until he’s asymptomatic, but he doesn’t seem to have an idea of how long that will take, with video courtesy of Alex Weiner of AZ Sports. “I know you guys want to know lengths of time, all the common questions that I want to know,” he said. “But we don’t know that. It’s going to depend on how he progresses and how he’s feeling day by day. We’re going to assess it daily and then build it out from there. The return will be determined by the length of time that he’s down. And I can tell you that he’s been feeling better day by day.”
Rodríguez departed his start on Tuesday after just one inning with some lat discomfort and it now seems a strain has been found. If he remains out of action for a notable amount of time, he may then need to effectively start his Spring Training ramp-up period from scratch.
It’s obviously unwelcome news for the Diamondbacks, as Rodríguez was their big offseason splash to upgrade the rotation. The Snakes managed to get all the way to the World Series last year despite a starting mix so weak that they were doing bullpen games in the playoffs.
They signed Rodríguez to a four-year, $80MM deal this winter with the hope of him stabilizing the rotation behind Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. That may come to pass eventually, but he’ll begin the season on the IL and will have a questionable timeline until more information comes to light.
In the meantime, the Diamondbacks will have to fill out the rotation with fairly unproven hurlers. Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Tommy Henry are the most likely pitchers to fill in behind Gallen and Kelly. Between those three, Nelson has the most regular season experience, with just 162 1/3 innings. Henry’s 4.57 ERA is the lowest of three. Pfaadt finished last year with a strong showing in the postseason but he’s allowed seven earned runs in 5 2/3 innings this spring.
Despite being the reigning National League champions, the Snakes are likely facing a tough battle this year. The Dodgers are loaded with superstars while the Giants recently had Blake Snell and Matt Chapman fall into their laps. The Padres have battled a budget crunch this winter but still have lots of talent on the roster. For the Diamondbacks, their rotation is now back to the wobbly state it was in at the start of the offseason, so they will naturally be hoping for a quick return from Rodríguez.
This contract looking rough already considering what the starters are getting now
It’s not like his entire career hasn’t already involved a multitude of injuries/ilness anyway.
Made my day when he walked out of Boston after yearly being dl’d multiple times. detroit had a chance of getting out from under the albatross when he invoked an opt-out cpl yrs back, then for some reason gave him another 5y deal.
The Tigers only had Rodriguez for 2 years because of the opt out. Of those two years he spent a large portion of it injured or “tending to personal business”. They also tried to trade him and he blocked it. Not sure what you mean by gave him another 5y deal. The Diamondbacks signed him to the 5 year deal.
Totally agree with your timeline… Tigers definitely dodged a bullet and seem to be better off without ERod than with him for 2024 and beyond
Tigers probably got the best year he’s going to have last season, may prove lucky he opted out
Blake Snell getting less than him doesn’t exactly make AZ look smart
@amk1920 that’s definitely a hindsight being 20/20 thing. They actually looked really smart initially locking him up quickly. It feels like the only person who maybe foresaw this with the market was Farhan Zaidi
They signed him very early in the process with a ton of talent on the board. Montgomery is a better pitcher who would be lucky to get half Erod at this point. They messed up hindsight or not
I don’t think AZ was ever smart. It’s not like they coasted into a playoff spot and they got lucky enough to pass through the postseason with a negative run differential
I’m in the minority, but, I dont think the snell deal was all that great teamwise.
You know he takes the opt out the very first season he doesn’t wind up majorly injured or majorly regressing performance wise.
So, you pay a fairly high AAV for either one-season, or, you get multiple while he doesn’t perform to value. Meanwhile, you lost a draft pick and the attached bonus pool money for the privilege.
Sort of makes sense if you think he’s the one SP to put you over the top as a serious contender, but, are the giants really that? Even with Chapman added too? Im not sure
Yikes!
Crap. Does this mean we have to suffer watching Henry for now?
Henry isn’t bad for a young pitcher. In fact, he competes well and he has a good mix of pitches, which is what crafty lefties have used to hold down a valuable backend career. I am not saying he is HOF, but just look at how all great pitchers start their careers. Henry could be a mid 4 ERA and sold innings eater to net them plus in the win category.
Here we go again…
Oh, please do NOT bring back Zach Davies.
Dbacks had a fantastic injury season in 2023, at least late, and especially among their pitchers and position player stars. SO easy to assume a team is really good when all it did was stay healthy and get hot at the right time.
They had a negative run differential too
I am rooting for the Snakes this year. Especially because of their youthful team and the fact that they could potentially knock the Blue Balls out of their supposed predestined 1st place finish.
It is a good thing the Red Sox did not re-sign him. He is one I was not in favor of keeping. Hindsight is 20/20, but between injuries, marital problems (cost him half a season), and myocarditis, he has missed a lot of time, and IMO, was ok, but never fully fulfilled the promise he looked like he had the ability to attain.
What Las Serpientes did in ’23 doesn’t happens every year, so this time there’s no postseason for them in ’24. Sorry but that’s mlb.
Rays – Wild Card teams have reached the World Series 16 times in 29 seasons or roughly 55% or the time.
WS winners
Marlins 1997
Angels 2002
Marlins 2003
Red Sox 2004
Cardinals 2011
Giants 2014
Nationals 2019
Rangers 2023
WS losers
Mets 2000
Giants 2002
Astros 2005
Detroit 2006
Rockies 2007
KC 2014
Phillies 2022
Diamondbacks 2023
So, it is not accurate to say a wild card team like AZ will not be in the WS. AZ may not be there in back-to-back years as injuries and performance may not good enough for them to get back to the WS, but it has happened (2015 Royals).
The biggest factor is that Arizona had a negative run differential. It has nothing to do with being a wild card team
Rodriguez will have his next healthy season either the final year of the contract or during an opt out year, and not before his money is on the line.
I’m also glad the sox didn’t resign him. Yes he missed a lot of time, but my biggest thing against him was his mental make up.
It seemed like he would be going along fine in games but then a runner would get on and he would lose all confidence, take a long time between pitches, stop throwing the ball for strikes hoping to get batters to chase, which they rarely did. That would lead to being behind in the count and either walk the batter or give up a hard hit ball when he threw it right down the middle. This led to a lot of big innings.
If he could just stay consistent I think he could be pretty good – when he’s healthy that is.
I have no idea why the d-backs were crazy enough to go 5 years on this guy. Good luck with that contract.
Nelson threw 5 decent innings today
As much as someone may want to dislike him for what it’s perceived he did to the Tigers, none of it was really his fault. He needed time off for what I would imagine had to be a major personal issue, I can understand that. He comes back and was great in 2023. Then, Harris tries to trade him to one of the teams he has contractually blocked and he blocks it, as was his right. And then he opts out of the deal, which everyone in his position would have done. And then he gets paid by AZ. I hope for his sake he can get back on the mound sooner than later, he’s a great pitcher.
He got paid n now he’s injured. He’s opportunistic quitter since he tried to renegotiate his trade to Dodgers for more loot n had deal scrubbed. Glad we didn’t get em n glad we stayed away frm em in FA.
Karma you jerk, ERod. Trust me as a Tigers fan, he will malinger this into half a season off, minimum.
It’s better to take precaution and make sure he is healthy for the long season, even helping his arm peak at the end. They won on less in the first half last year. I am not worried about their first half. I hope they load up for the second half.
Run differential really doesn’t say much. You could lose 1 game 10-1 and then win three 3-1 and your record would be 3-1 with a negative run differential of 4.