DECEMBER 16: Texas has announced the signing.
DECEMBER 9: The Rangers have agreed to a two-year, $5.5MM contract with left-hander Joely Rodriguez, pending a physical, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports. He’s represented by Daniel Szew of L.A. Sports Management.
The pact comes with a club option for a third year, per Jeff Passan of ESPN, and MLBTR’s Steve Adams further reports that the contract would be worth $8MM if the option is exercised. Rodriguez spent most of the previous two years, including all of last season, in Japan as a member of the Chunichi Dragons.
This move represents something of a homecoming for the 28-year-old Rodriguez, a reliever who pitched with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2017. However, Rodriguez didn’t take a major league mound as a Ranger during his prior stint with the club. To this point, all of his MLB experience has come as part of the Phillies, with whom he combined for 36 2/3 innings from 2016-17. Rodriguez struggled to prevent runs over that short span, evidenced by a 5.40 ERA, and posted a dismal K/BB ratio of 1.32 with 6.14 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9. He did, however, induce groundballs at a strong 58.3 percent clip.
Rodriguez hasn’t thrived in the majors thus far, and the same applies to his time in Triple-A. At the minors’ top level, he owns a 5.38 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 across 164 innings. To Rodriguez’s credit, though, he starred in Japan. Over 87 2/3 frames as a Dragon, Rodriguez put up a stingy 1.85 ERA and logged 10.6 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9. He parlayed that success into an unexpected payday in the majors, where he’ll return to join a Rangers team that has been aggressive on the pitching market this winter. They previously added starters Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles on contracts worth a combined $44MM.
As was the case with their rotation, the Rangers entered the offseason with bullpen issues, as their relief corps finished 2019 with mediocre marks. Going forward, it seems likely they’ll count on Rodriguez as one of their late-game bridges, though it’s anyone’s guess whether he’ll be able to carry the excellence he displayed in Japan to Texas.
Interesting. It could be a good signing.
that’s not how you spell Rendon
This says the Rangers, not the Phillies
Good signing, we needed a left hander in the pen bad, his numbers in Japan suggest a real turn around, hopefully he can follow is Chris Martin’s footsteps and be very productive for us
Yeah the Rangers have had success with signing some decent relievers that came back. Needed a power lefty and we’ll see how it turns out.
Yep, and you could expand that to the starting staff as well with Colby Lewis.
But if this follows the trend set with the Cobra, Tony Barnette and Chris Martin signings, Rangers fans will be very happy.
He should be a solid reliever in America for the Rangers
Why would they sign him to a major league deal? He wasn’t too good with the Phillies a couple of years ago and Japan Baseball is way different from MLB. I’m skeptical…
They did the same thing with Chris Martin and turned him into kolby Allard. Low risk high reward move.
And Tony Barnette, who posted an ERA+ above 200 in two of his three seasons in Arlington.
*Rangers proceed to stick him at third base and call it a cheap fill-in*
I thought Gibson got $30m and Lyles got $16m, totaling not $44m. Would be easier to check if their names in this article were linked to their bb-ref as is customary.
Gibson got $28 with a possible $3 in incentives
J Rod
A low risk signing with some upside. I’m really liking Texas off season thus far.
please fire Billy INEPT-PLER…