The Padres are expected to sign outfielder Carlos Rodriguez to a minor league deal, reports Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. The agreement includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training. Not to be confused with the Brewers’ pitching prospect or the Rays’ executive of the same name, Rodriguez was most recently in the Braves’ system.
Rodriguez ranked among Atlanta’s top 30 prospects after signing in minor league free agency ahead of the 2025 campaign. FanGraphs and MLB.com both had him ranked at 25th. The 22-year-old torched Double-A pitching for 10 games, then moved up to Triple-A. Rodriguez posted an underwhelming .640 OPS with Gwinnett, but did pop a career-high eight home runs to go with 17 stolen bases. He hit minor league free agency once again at the conclusion of the season.
Milwaukee signed Rodriguez as an international free agent in 2017. He piled up knocks at the lower levels of the minors, hitting well over .300 in his first two professional seasons. Rodriguez slipped to a 91 wRC+ in his first attempt at High-A in 2021. He repeated the level in 2022 and delivered a respectable .268/.355/.415.
Rodriguez took a similar route at Double-A, producing close to league-average results in 2023 before putting together one of his best seasons to date in his second try. FanGraphs ranked Rodriguez (the outfielder) 34th among the Brewers’ prospects heading into the 2024 season. As a 23-year-old repeating Double-A, Rodriguez posted a career-best 130 wRC+ with more walks than strikeouts. The performance got him a bump to Triple-A, where his production fell off outside of strong plate discipline.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez will now get a chance to earn a big-league roster spot with San Diego. He’s performed well in the spring in back-to-back seasons, though the sample sizes are limited. Rodriguez went 6-for-13 over 10 spring games with the Brewers back in 2024. He had five hits and a stolen base over 16 at-bats with the Braves this past spring.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Top 30 Braves prospect just shows how bad atlantas farm system is currently looking. Good arms but position player bare.
Rodriguez will head to El Paso and if he performs well will be in line for a call up if there are injuries to multiple Padres outfielders.
Padres outfield already set. Maybe he’ll make the team as 4th OF
He must be better than Kelenic
Padres making all the right moves this off season strong off season so far
Not content with celebrating another title? You’ve turned into a very sad troll, Butters. Very sad.
If we eliminated all the “this move will make them world series champions” “another dumpster dive” “trade him for a bag of balls and a bucket of gum” the Padres fan with 128 different user names and the cards fan with 467 names we would only have 25 maybe 30 mlbtr members tops.
20-25