Right-hander Francisco Rodriguez, who was recently released by the Tigers, is being pursued by the Nationals and is likely to end up signing there, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (via Twitter).
The Nationals, of course, have a clear need for bullpen help, and while K-Rod has been torched to this point of the 2017 season, he could at least make sense as a possible depth options for the Nats to stash in Triple-A for the time being. The 35-year-old Rodriguez was clobbered for a 7.82 ERA through 25 1/3 innings in Detroit thanks largely to a staggering nine home runs allowed in that small sample of work. He’s had success with a diminished fastball in recent seasons, but this year’s average of 88.9 mph is the lowest of his storied career.
For all of his 2017 struggles, Rodriguez did post a very solid 3.24 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a career-high 54.7 percent ground-ball rate as the Tigers’ closer in 2016, totaling 44 saves throughout the year. He’s earning $8MM this year, though the Tigers are on the hook for the remainder of that considerable sum. If he does indeed land with the Nats, Washington would only have to pay him the pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any time spent in the Majors.
Not what they need, but I guess he’s worth a shot.
I’m no fortune teller, but I see the Nats installing him as closer, he accounts for 5 or 6 losses before they move on to the next option and DFA him. Most likely scenario.
Could happen, I think he’ll do slightly better in the NL though.
“Nine lives” Francisco! How many times in his career has he been left for dead? Throw enough poopy against the wall and maybe find something that sticks. They have time to try it out before exhausting any prospects on a more recently proven closer via trade.
Could be a good fit but they need to know that they aren’t getting what he once was if they do agree to a contract and they shouldn’t offer him a lot of money either
They don’t have to pay him virtually anything, as the post says.
If this doesn’t fix their pen, I don’t know what will. 🙂
Having talent would be a start.
Bullpen pitchers come and go. Nationals need to just give some pitchers a shot. As a rangers fan, Sam dyson is the weirdest one but unless your an elite talent like Rivera or Trevor Hoffman. Relief pitchers just come and go.
He’s been a disaster this year and he complained to the press when the Tigers moved him out of the closer role. Bad attitude. The Nats better look for more talent than KRod.
Small issue that doesn’t really change the story, but his contract was for 6 million dollars, not 8 million.
I said the Nationals would go after him when he was released. At pro rated minimum. Why not? Wouldn’t be the first player that was bad and turned it around moving to a new team. Carlos Gomez last year comes to mind, Give him a couple of weeks and see what has then if he’s not the answer. You cut him and go the trade route.
Rizzo should have learned his lesson. He has assembled another formidable team that is poised to have blown saves and bullpen losses.
I’m hardly a Rizzo apologist, but it’s tough to place the blame squarely on him when ownership killed a trade for David Robertson and a signing of Greg Holland in the same offseason.
That said, trading Felipe Rivero for Mark Melancon looked bad at the time and looks exponentially worse now.
Brutal in the clubhouse, worse on the mound. Any team looking to shore-up their pen by taking guys that couldn’t contribute to the Tigers pen is barking up the wrong tree
How do you know about his clubhouse presence?
Because he popped off to the media and threw a tantrum when he was lifted from the closer role after being consistently terrible for a month and a half – then proceeded to suck in every other role. Good teammates keep that stuff in-house.
Sounds like as good of a move as was getting Pappelbon a few years ago. Wonder if Rodriguez will fight Harper too.
The wrong Francisco Rodriguez is linked
Getting Tiger reject wow