The Tigers announced today that they have released veteran righty Francisco Rodriguez. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by righty Bruce Rondon.
Detroit also announced that it has selected the contract of outfielder Matt Den Dekker. He’ll take the spot of Alex Presley, who’s headed to the 7-day concussion DL.
Rodriguez, now 35, was acquired from the Brewers before the 2016 season with one more year and an option left on his free-agent contract. He had shown signs of deterioration last year, but still gave the Tigers 58 1/3 innings of 3.24 ERA ball. That showing led the Tigers to pick up the extra year at $6MM, rather than spending $2MM on a buyout.
After years of mostly steady production, the veteran righty has fallen off badly thus far in 2017. Over 25 1/3 innings, he owns an unsightly 7.82 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9. Opposing hitters are driving home runs at a rate of more than one per every three innings, offering at pitches outside of the zone just 20% of the time (lowest in K-Rod’s career), and hitting grounders at only a 30.1% clip.
While the signs aren’t promising, that’s not to say other organizations won’t at least take a look at Rodriguez. He has a lifetime 2.86 ERA, was dominant as recently as 2015, and even in his diminished state has managed a 9.6% swinging-strike rate — though that’s well off his 12.4% career average. At this point, though, it seems likely that Rodriguez will need to spend some time at Triple-A working out the kinks before being asked to face major leaguers.
My phone showed me this alert and it made my day.
Yes
Would have made my day 2 months ago
Same
Braves
Haha no
No thanks. We have enough crap in the pen.
Have fun it’s like watching a home run derby every other night
About time. Good riddance. 13+ ERA after his ride on the wahmbulance? Sayonara.
Unfortunately I could see this day coming. There is a certain age where that once you hit it you just fall off without warning and K-ROD was its latest victim
Wrong Francisco Rodriguez linked.
yeah I was like damn he only has 61 innings in his career, seemed like more lol.
I could see Washington taking a flyer on him
They’d be damn fools if they did. K-Rod is done, He’s had a great career, I hope he has a happy retirement.
He’s not worth a flier at this point
Nats can’t afford to bring in a solid maybe like Rodriguez who might cost them 6 or 7 more games before moving on to the next closer. WAS needs a PROVEN closer who is CURRENTLY EFFECTIVE.
Yes!
Wow look at that era
Cardinals may look at him.
That’s a good start to cleaning up the clubhouse.
Please don’t come back to Milwaukee again!!!
And stay away from Flushing
Red Sox..Pawtucket..find his stuff and come back and dominate
Yes I agree with this!
Nats for sure
Sandy A announced that the Mets were all in and going to sign k-rod.
“He’s virtually free, which is always the first consideration for the Mets. Also we want to come full circle and give him a chance to redeem himself after his domestic violence issues. We have an excellent support system in place with Jose Reyes buddying up with k.rod
Don’t forget About K-rod previous success, folks… Have some compassion for all this players that BTW make more money than regular US workers do… C’mon…
Something tells me he will be receiving a call from the 414 area code soon
New yankee set-up man!
welcome back to the brewers
Bruce Rondon is replacing Francisco Rodriguez on the roster Pick your poison.
The Tigers are simply “practice” for teams preparing to play against a team of professionals.
Its Joe Jimenez time to Close things!!
Most of you here are foolish self-righteous, ignorant, arm-chair athletes and have little to no appreciation of the talent that everyone who makes the bigs HAS! I played one year single A and had just one friend make the big leagues — Jason Thompson.. Only 10% of the triple A players make it to the Majors and perhaps one out of ten of them ever become a starter for just a few years!
Franco Rodriguez is in the top 1% of relievers whoever played the game and saved 44 games last year! Every one gets old and it is HEARTBREAKING to get to the point when you are unable to compete in the game you LOVED! Rodriguez control has gone away by only 1 and 1/2 inches and it gets him in a bad count and you have to get a strike…… No one can last in the majors when that happens —- NO MATTER HOW FAST YOU CAN THROW THE BALL! Any pitch that the entire ball is in the strike zone has a good chance of getting hammered by any big league hitter!
I never say good riddance to any ball player when age and injuries catch up to them. I am just glad they had the chance to be the best they could be in the majors or anywhere else. Franco Rodriguez deserves respect and thank you’s and hope that he can play the game he loves for a few more years.
Thank you Franky for the years —– you were one of the best relievers of all time!
well said. that’s awesome.
Nationals on a minor league contract might be hidden hope in that arm. Soon as he improves being him up . Not much left but pride as a junk inning guy this year the retire as a Brewer. On a one day contract.
If he’s smart, he’ll go to Durham and see if the Rays can fix him. They have the track record of doing so, and will have him in high leverage MLB games as soon as he shows any semblance of being serviceable.