Royals Release Wandy Rodriguez

The Royals released left-hander Wandy Rodriguez earlier this week, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports.  Rodriguez signed a minor league deal with Kansas City in August and made five relief appearances for Triple-A Omaha but was never called up to the big league roster.

Rodriguez, who turns 37 in January, posted a 4.90 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 2.00 K/BB rate over 86 1/3 innings with Texas last season before being released in early August.  The veteran had a 3.20 ERA in his first 11 starts with the Rangers and was even building some trade deadline buzz before getting hit hard over his next six outings.

Once a stalwart of the Astros rotation, Rodriguez posted a 4.04 ERA over eight seasons and 1306 2/3 innings in Houston before being dealt to the Pirates in July 2012.  Given his track record, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Rodriguez signed to a minor league deal by a team looking for veteran rotation depth prior to Spring Training.