One guy who has been linked to the Toronto Blue Jays may wind up joining the New York Yankees. Following his
return to form with the Chicago Cubs last season, New York was considered the ideal landing option for 2019
National League Most Valuable Player Cody Bellinger was named early in the offseason. There was a moment when Bellinger’s
Signing with the Yankees looked certain. Instead, New York made a change of direction and acquired superstar
slugger Juan Soto. As Bellinger is still a free agent, his next destination is still unknown. The Toronto Blue Jays are
another team that has emerged as a potential contender for Bellinger, while Chicago still appears to be the front-
runner, according the New York
The Blue Jays have entered the free agency market for the first time in 2024, but it wasn’t to get the bat they sorely
need to improve their offense, which struggled mightily in the previous campaign.
The Jays have reportedly reached an agreement with Cuban pitcher Yariel Rodríguez, who turns 27 in March, for a
four-year contract for $32 million (U.S.).
Although he won’t increase hitting in any way, the right-hander is the first addition to a pitching staff that dominates.
opponents in 2023. He didn’t pitch in organized baseball after the World Baseball Classic last spring in order to plan
his move to North America.
After serving as a starting pitcher in Cuba, Rodríguez moved to Japan to pitch for the Chunichi Dragons for three
seasons. In his last season there, he moved to the bullpen and dominated, recording a 1.15 ERA while allowing just
32 hits and no home runs in 54 2/3 innings of relief with 60 strikeouts.
However, he was starting when he took the mound at the 2023 WBC, and the Blue Jays apparently want to employ
him in that capacity. That does not, however, imply that he is placed in a rotation that is healthy and full at the
moment, and that placed third in the majors with a 3.68 ERA the previous year.
The acerbic right-winger is not a contender to disband the
The man needs to be stretched, and it may be necessary for him to begin the season in Buffalo with the Jays’ premier
development team.
The likelihood is that he will be there in April, strengthening his arm in preparation for a potential injury or if Alek
Manoah’s return doesn’t go as planned. Either way, he should be able to enter the lineup by mid-May at the latest.
Given that Rodríguez hasn’t thrown as much as 100 innings in a season since 2018, that could be a tall order.
In light of this, it would be a tad optimistic for some to envision the lanky righty in a Ross Stripling-like swingman
role.
The best position for Rodriguez to contribute to the big club this season will probably be in the setup role left by
Jordan Hicks, who last week inked a four-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, joined a loaded bullpen led
by Jordan Romano, which also includes Yimi Garcia, Chad Green, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza, and Genesis Cabrera.
However, doing so would mean giving up on Rodríguez’s potential to be a valuable addition to the starting lineup in
the future, and if there’s one thing
Some Jays supporters may find solace in the fact that former Jays reliever Rafael Dolis was among the first names to
appear in player comparisons put together by fangraphs.com when considering Rodríguez as a lockdown arm out of
the bullpen. Nobody desires to experience that once more.
Rodríguez cannot legitimately be considered a substitute for the fifth starter this season because of his shallow
workloads during the previous five years, which makes it doubtful that he will be able to log many innings as a
starter. Thus, it seems a bit unrealistic to think that he was signed in order to swap Manoah for offensive support.
With an unsightly 5.87 ERA and an average of fewer than 4 2/3 innings pitched per start in 2023, Manoah has a lot of
to show. It would be asking a lot to expect him to return to the form that saw him finish third in the Cy Young vote in
2022.
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