The Pirates informed reporters today, including Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, that catcher/first baseman Endy Rodríguez has undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery. Stumpf says Rodríguez is expected to be ready for spring training, so he seems to be done for 2025.
It’s another unfortunate twist for Rodríguez’s career. He was one of the top prospects in baseball ahead of his debut. When he got up to the show in 2023, he didn’t hit much but his defensive grades were strong. Since he had been a good hitter throughout his minor league career, it was hoped he could be the club’s long-term catcher.
But going into 2024, he required surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor tendon, which wiped out that entire season. He got back on the field here in 2025 but this season has also been significantly marred by injuries. A laceration on his right index finger put him on the injured list in mid-April. He was reinstated from the IL in late May but was back on the shelf again about a week later due to elbow inflammation. He was pretty quickly transferred to the 60-day IL, suggesting the Pirates knew he was in for a long absence. Today’s news confirms that. Due to all those injury issues, Rodríguez only played 18 big league games this year. Since he missed all of 2024, it’s been close to two lost years.
That’s less than ideal for Rodríguez personally but it also means the Bucs will go into 2026 with question marks behind the plate again. As of a few years ago, they had two of the top catching prospects in baseball. In addition to Rodríguez, they also had Henry Davis, taken first overall in 2021.
While Rodríguez has been mostly out of action, Davis hasn’t delivered on his promise. Davis currently has a .183/.271/.298 batting line in 579 big league plate appearances, including a .169/.247/.281 showing here in 2025. With Rodríguez out last year, the Bucs acquired Joey Bart in April. That looked like a masterstroke when Bart hit 13 home runs in just 282 plate appearances last year. But here in 2025, he has just two homers in 256 trips to the plate. His glovework isn’t highly rated, so the offensive drop-off hurts his value.
The Pirates have a great pitching staff but the lineup is lacking, with clear issues on the infield and behind the plate. Ideally, Rodríguez would have taken over the job this year and cemented himself as the man for the job. Instead, it’s more time rehabbing from surgery and more question marks.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Yikes. Feel for the kid.
Poor guy can’t catch a break. Still, he’s still very young and can become a quality MLB player.
Endy is injury prone period
Poor kid! This definitely feels “Very Nerve”
Endy will have to prove himself once more in AAA next year.
His days of catching may be over.
I am sorry to say that Henry has proven that he cannot hit ML pitching although he may be able to stick as a backup catcher.
Catching was once supposed to be a strength for this club and instead it’s been a disaster
Bart, who hit 13 homers in 80 some games last year only has 2
Davis, as Mendoza said has proven that he can’t hit major league pitching, but come to think of it, not many Pirates can
Davis would probably hit better with another team because I feel like the pirates hitting staff is completely inept
Hitting coaching probably does matter, mariners have hit ever since we hired Edgar Martinez, braves forgot to hit ever since Ron Washington left
good hitting coaches cost money.
That’s why the Bucs hire only the cheapest
Kevin Seitzer is not Washington.
Pitching is the best thing going for the Pirates now.
not in Milwaukee.
Pirates pitching gave up 33 runs in their 3 game series while their offense scored only 8 runs
Catching has been a problem for the Pirates since Nutting bought the team. I don’t think there’s another team in MLB with more highly drafted catchers who were busts, relative to their draft pick, since he bought the team.
2009 #4 pick Tony Sanchez-51 MLB games from 2013-2015.
2013 #14 pick Reese McGuire-Traded to Toronto in 2016. To his credit, he’s still playing, and has a 2.1 career WAR.
2021 #1 Henry Davis.
At the plate, their best (healthy) catching prospect is the recently acquired Rafael Flores. Unfortunately, he’s awful defensively and probably better at 1B.
I’m old, the best catcher I saw out of the Pirates, offense for sure I’m not sure how good his defense was, was Jason Kendall. The man was a pesky at bat, made great contact and had a high batting average.
Tony Péna
Ed Ott? Manny Sanguillen? Burgess? Those are the old Pirates. Only back to the 60’s.
Russell Martin had his best years with the last good pirates teams but they haven’t had a strong catcher since then
Cervelli was a good catcher until the concussions got to him.
Martin good. Cervelli good. Stalling above average. Hedges average. Teams who actually know something about baseball trade for him and sign him. Grandpal average. Pirates had fine catching last dozen years.
Pirates value framing defense as they should. These catchers are better than fans think. Stealing strikes limits walks which limits runs. Keeps pitch count down. Calling the game is most important. The research between games. Pirates have been very fine at catcher for a long time.
Ah man. Going into 2023 he looked like he’d be the catcher of the future, his AAA numbers didn’t reflect his earlier offense but still looked good on defense then poof injuries.
I’ve had this surgery before and feel fine now. He is going to need to watch what he does in the future with activities.
Anything that can go wrong in Pittsburgh has gone wrong. I think they need new people over player development.
New people doing player development. Likely? Likely not. I would love to see a comparison of salaries/investments in the development coaching staffs of Pirates versus Rays and Brewers (and other successful small market clubs). I read a story about how much was invested in the Dominican Pirates complex recently. It seemed impressive. But I have very little knowledge of the business of baseball from the lowest levels all the way through to the majors. I would assume that one would invest in development and try to retain those developed players, one would invest at the major league level through free agency on established players (and hope for some stars that come up through the system at relatively cheap cost to supplement the MLB team – think Yankees), or one would develop some hybrid system between those extremes. Business of baseball is way more complicated than dishing out money at the major league level to field a competitive team.
Well these owners aren’t giving Nutting their $ just so he can keep it. It has to go back into the team. You know it isn’t going into mlb payroll. Pirates pound for pound spend as much as anyone. Spend more than some teams. Pirates have plenty of equipment scout analysts coaches. They have over paid to still employees from other teams. Keep in mind also as a small market they get extra draft pick and more international pool. Picking top 10 in every draft. They spend as much as anyone on their farm system.
They should cut their entire analytics department though. Giddy up giddy up 409
The Pirates drafted more pitchers. That was not a mistake, it is the Bob Nutting plan. Never have a lineup ready to contend because every winter the free agent pitchers needed are there. All you have to do is write the checks.
You can’t buy a lineup any winter, forget every winter. Build the roster backwards and never open a line of attack to force you to spend.
They draft more pitchers because Cherington is horrible at scouting position players
They take the best available player and don’t care what position it is. Davis Gonzales KG TJ those aren’t pitchers and all 1st round picks. 4 bats 2 arms so if anything they prefer bats by your logic. Should be other way around. You need a lot of arms to get through season. They get hurt often. Often for months years missing entire seasons.
This is just another reason why you should trade one of your top prospects if they play the same position. Trading one of Rodriguez or Davis in 2022 or 2023 could have netted the Pirates a nice piece or two. Neither has worked out instead. Now no one can see into the future, but when you keep both you are just setting up the failure of at least one f them.
Good football teams do not collect QBs, they pick one and use the other to get help elsewhere. Good basketball teams do not keep two starting quality PGs, they pick one and use the other to get help elsewhere. Good hockey teams do not keep multiple starting goalies, they pick one and go with him. The Pirates instead tried to keep three top prospects and just fit two square pegs into round holes.
I’ve never heard of teams not stockpiling prospects even if at the same position. There are multiple levels of the minor leagues and each were on their own development path.
If they both turned into major league catchers and then the team just held them that’s one thing. But a team lacking any kind of hitting prospects trading a hitter because there is another prospect at the same position is silly.
Of course they have to fill out their minor league rosters. But they shouldn’t fill the same positions with TOP prospects. Both Davis and Rodriguez were top 100 guys. You don’t need that at the same position. Especially one where defense is the priority of the position. Moving a shortstop to second base is not really that big a deal because overall hitting for the positions in the league is fairly comparable. But catchers moved to other positions will almost always be lesser prospects as first basemen or outfielders just because their bats do not look as good when compared to others at that position as opposed to catchers. Henry Davis at catcher was a great prospect, Henry Davis at right field was fairly middle of the pack regardless of the results.
Endy wasn’t drafted by the Pirates, he was obtained in a trade.
Davis was drafted by the Bucs though
They have no catching now and you suggest they should have traded one of them! And you do realize we are in a different century. Catchers don’t catch every game. You need 2.
If I’m Pittsburgh, I just cut bait. Poor kid, but if it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on. All signs point to it
There’s no one one. Why cut bait? Have you seen next year’s free agent market? He needs to try to catch until his arm falls off.
So Joey Lucchesi for Endy Rodriguez. Nuthin.
Vogelbach for Holderman. Nuthin’.
Endy was part of the trade that sent Musgrove to San Diego.
Soto already knows that captain obvious as he even named the exact player that Endy was traded for.
They’ve probably known this for months. I’d imagine they won’t get anyone this off season, and roll with newly acquired Rafael Flores & Henry Davis.
If I’m wrong, they’ll get another 36+ y/o on the cheap.
Take a look at free agents. Davis Endy look like best options. Flores injury performance replacement probably sometime mid April to get extra year.
The Pirates should’ve sold high on Bart when they had the chance.
Hindsight is 20/20. In hindsight, I should have never sold my Apple stock.
No other team wanted him for free when he was dfa. 200 300 abs going to make them change their mind? He stinks at catching. Can’t play anywhere else. Can’t run. Can’t throw. Can’t block. Can’t frame. Can’t catch. There was no selling high.
Needs:
New GM
Player Development team
New Coaching specifically Hitting/pitching AGAIN
Money spent wisely
Haves:
Skenes
Bad breaks for a good young man
The pirates have the kid they got in the bednar trade. Catching will be ok when hes called up next year.
Go with Bart, Davis and Endy next year. Free agents for catchers in 2026 are not good, either too old or cant hit. I would say trade Davis, but you need to see how Endy comes out of the surgery.