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Joely Rodriguez

Joely Rodriguez’s Season In Jeopardy Due To Recurring Hip Pain

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Left-hander Joely Rodriguez has been shut down due to continued discomfort in his hip, Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MLB.com’s Ian Browne (Twitter link) and other reporters.  Rodriguez has already been on the 15-day injured list since July 29 due to his hip problem, and Cora acknowledged that the southpaw might have thrown his last pitch of the 2023 campaign.

It has been an injury-marred year for Rodriguez, who has tossed only 11 innings in his first season in Boston.  The lefty signed a one-year free agent deal last winter worth $2MM in guaranteed money, yet he suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain during Spring Training that delayed his season debut until May 17.  Rodriguez then missed another month due to shoulder inflammation, returning to action on July 8 and appearing in six games before his latest IL stint.

There was quite a gulf in Rodriguez’s performance in between IL visits, as he had an ugly 18.00 ERA over his five games and four innings prior to his shoulder-related injury absence.  In July, however, Rodriguez was much sharper, with seven scoreless innings and no walks over the six appearances before his hip injury sent him to the sidelines.  It works out to a 6.55 ERA for the season, and Rodriguez might not get a chance to improve on that total if his hip problem does indeed result in a permanent shutdown.

Rodriguez’s contract contains a 2024 club option worth $4.25MM, or the Red Sox can buy out that option for $500K.  Given the string of injuries, it certainly doesn’t seem like Boston will exercise that option, so Rodriguez is likely to be headed back to free agency.  Entering his age-32 season and with an injury-riddled 2023 behind him, Rodriguez may have to settle for a minor league deal or another low-guarantee MLB contract on the open market this winter, even if he can make it back for a few more innings near the end of Boston’s season.

The Sox have been looking for left-handed relief options for much of the year due to Rodriguez’s frequent absences, but it seems as though they have landed on a pair of solid lefties in Brennan Bernardino and Chris Murphy.  The bullpen as a whole got another boost today when Garrett Whitlock was activated from the 15-day IL, and Whitlock threw two scoreless innings and picked up the win in Boston’s 6-3 victory over the Tigers.

It was Whitlock’s first outing since July 3 due to a bout of right elbow inflammation, and the Sox plan to use him as a multi-inning reliever rather than a starter.  Whitlock has been much more effective as a reliever than as a starter over the last three seasons, plus the Red Sox also have Tanner Houck lined up for starting duty when Houck returns from his own IL stint.  Cora told Browne and company that Houck is slated to make one more minor league rehab start before being activated from the IL next week.

Upcoming Club Option Decisions: AL East

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Last week, MLBTR took an early look at offseason option decisions facing teams in the National League. We’ll continue our division by division series by checking in on players in the AL East whose contracts contain club or mutual options for next season. The Rays are the only AL East team not slated to have any option calls to make.

Previous entries: NL East, NL Central, NL West

Baltimore Orioles

  • Mychal Givens: $6MM mutual option ($2MM buyout if team declines, $1MM buyout if player declines)

Givens has bounced around in journeyman fashion over the past few seasons. The middle reliever returned to his original stomping grounds in Baltimore on a $5MM free agent guarantee. He hasn’t had any chance to get into a rhythm yet, however. He opened the season on the injured list with left knee inflammation. He was out until late May and made four appearances, allowing six runs in four innings while working with diminished velocity. The O’s put him back on the IL last week, citing inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

Boston Red Sox

Kluber signed a $10MM free agent guarantee with Boston over the offseason. He’d been a reliable innings-eating veteran for the Rays last year. Kluber hasn’t been a Cy Young-caliber pitcher for quite some time, but Boston envisioned him as a stabilizing mid-rotation presence in a starting staff full of unproven or injury-riddled options.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Kluber was tagged for a 6.26 ERA through his first nine starts. His strikeout rate dropped to a career-worst 17.7% clip, and he served up home runs at an untenable 2.38 HR/9 pace. The Sox bumped Kluber out of the rotation two weeks ago, pushing him into multi-inning relief. He’s tossed three innings of two-run ball in his first bullpen appearances in a decade.

An injury to Chris Sale could get Kluber another rotation opportunity, but he’ll have to pitch much better than he did in the first two months of the season for the Sox to entertain an $11MM+ option. The option price would escalate by $500K if Kluber makes 20 starts and an additional $750K apiece at 25 and 30 starts (which look unlikely based on the bullpen move).

The Sox signed Rodríguez to a $2MM free agent deal at the beginning of last offseason. He suffered an oblique strain in Spring Training and was knocked out of commission for six weeks. The 31-year-old has returned to pitch in four games but surrendered nine runs. He went back on the 15-day IL over the weekend with shoulder inflammation. This appears on its way to a buyout.

Rodríguez isn’t the only veteran lefty reliever who’s battling injury problems. Bleier landed in Boston via a change-of-scenery bullpen swap that sent Matt Barnes to Miami. While the soft-tossing southpaw is inducing ground balls at a strong 51.5% clip, that’s below the career 61.5% grounder rate he carried into the year. He’s never missed bats. The 36-year-old is a grounder specialist with elite control. He’s been uncharacteristically prone to hard contact in his early stint in Boston, contributing to a 5.85 ERA through 20 innings. The Sox placed Bleier on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation a couple weeks ago. It’s early but trending towards a buyout as well.

New York Yankees

Donaldson is playing out the final guaranteed season of the four-year free agent deal he signed with the Twins in 2020. The Yankees took on the contract in the 2022 trade that also brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. (That trade converted a ’24 club option into a mutual option.) It’s a move New York would like to have back, with both Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson underwhelming in the Bronx.

Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had his worst offensive showing in a decade last year. He hit .222/.308/.374 over 546 plate appearances while striking out at a career-worst 27.1% rate. Public metrics still loved Donaldson’s defense at the hot corner. Despite some offseason speculation the Yankees could try to offload some of his contract, they didn’t seem to come close to finding a taker and opened this season with Donaldson back at third base. He played only five games before suffering a right hamstring injury that cost him almost two months. The Yankees activated him from the IL over the weekend, and he promptly hit two home runs in his return — followed by an 0-for-4.

With a hefty $6MM buyout, there’s only a $10MM net call on the option. That’s not an outlandish price for a solid everyday player, but Donaldson’s offensive drop-off, age, and recent injury history all raise questions about whether he should be a regular on a team with playoff aspirations. Barring a summer offensive outburst from the three-time All-Star, the team is probably buying this out.

Toronto Blue Jays

  • Chad Green: Team has three-year, $27MM option (if declined, Green and team have conditional options)

Green signed a complex free agent deal as he works back from May ’22 Tommy John surgery. He’s making $2.25MM this year. At season’s end, the Jays will have to decide whether to trigger three consecutive $9MM options (essentially a three-year, $27MM contract for 2024-26). If the team declines, the right-hander would get a $6.25MM player option for next year only. If Green passes on that, the Jays would have to make a call on a two-year, $21MM option for 2024-25.

With a year removed from surgery, Green recently progressed to throwing batting practice (via MLB.com injury tracker). A post All-Star Break return to MLB action is on track. While guaranteeing Green $27MM based on a couple good months after Tommy John surgery seems unlikely, the Jays were at least open enough to the possibility to sign him to the contract in the first place. There haven’t been any notable setbacks in the four months since they put pen to paper.

The Jays acquired Merrifield from the Royals last summer. It was a buy-low move while the former American League hits leader was scuffling, and he’s gotten on track north of the border. Merrifield has a .292/.339/.413 batting line as a Blue Jay. That includes a .299/.349/.399 showing in 2023 that has locked him in as Toronto’s starting second baseman.

While Toronto has gotten what they’d wanted from Merrifield, it’s hard to envision them exercising this option. The $17.5MM price point is lofty, particularly when considering the market has tended to devalue contact-oriented second basemen. The Phillies bought out a $17MM option on Jean Segura last winter, for instance; he found a $17MM guarantee spread over two years from the Marlins on the open market. The Brewers did exercise a $10MM option on Kolten Wong but promptly traded him to Seattle in a buy-low flier for Jesse Winker. An $8-12MM per-year salary for Merrifield is more reasonable, particularly when considering that he’ll turn 35 next January.

  • Yimi García: $5MM club option ($1MM buyout); option vests at $6MM with 49 appearances or 49 innings pitched in 2023

García signed a two-year guarantee with a club/vesting option over the 2021-22 offseason. The option would vest at $6MM if he combines for 110 innings or 110 outings between 2022-23. García threw 61 innings in as many appearances last season, leaving 49 more to check off.

He’s well on his way to doing so. García has made 26 appearances and tossed 24 2/3 innings entering play Monday. He’s 23 outings or 24 1/3 frames shy of triggering the vesting provision. Unless the veteran righty sustains a notable injury, he should clear that threshold.

Even if García doesn’t vest the option, it’s not out of the question the Jays would bring him back. There’d be a $4MM difference between the club option price and the buyout. García was solid in year one, working to a 3.10 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate. A massive .368 average on balls in play has led to a 6.20 ERA thus far in 2023, but García’s peripherals are strong as ever. He’s striking out 26.5% of batters faced while inducing grounders on half the batted balls he allows. He’s averaging 96 mph on his heater. His ball in play results figure to stabilize.

Note: Austin Voth signed an arbitration contract that contained a 2024 club option. He’d remain eligible for arbitration next season even if the option is declined and has accordingly been excluded from this list.

Injury Notes: Garrett, Altuve, Rosario, Rodriguez, Avisail

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The Royals placed Amir Garrett on the 15-day injured list yesterday, with a retroactive May 29 placement date.  The left-hander is suffering from a valgus extension overload in his throwing elbow, which manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (including MLB.com) is like a bone bruise.  Garrett will miss roughly 3-4 weeks in total, and will be shut down for the next 5-7 days before being re-examined.

Since Kansas City already seems out of the pennant race, that means Garrett should be able to return well before the trade deadline, and perhaps establish himself as a trade chip for a Royals team that is already open to moving relievers.  Garrett is a free agent this winter, making him even more of an obvious trade candidate as a rental player.  Beyond his current health issue, however, the biggest obstacle in the way of a Garrett deal is his garish 17.7% walk rate, the highest yet for a pitcher who has struggled with control over most of his seven MLB seasons.  While Garrett has only a 3.00 ERA over 21 innings and his strikeout (25%) and grounder (48.1%) rates are both respectable, the walk rate certainly stands out as a red flag for any interesting suitors.

More on other injury situations around baseball…

  • Jose Altuve didn’t play today and likely won’t play on Sunday, as Astros manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle) that Altuve is dealing with a minor oblique problems.  The second baseman felt discomfort after a swing in Friday’s game, and while the injury isn’t deemed serious enough to merit an MRI, the Astros are naturally being careful with Altuve given how oblique problems can linger or become easily aggravated.  It’s a day-to-day situation for now, though Houston doesn’t have an off-day on the schedule until June 12.
  • The Guardians removed Amed Rosario from today’s game in the fourth inning due to left knee soreness.  Rosario is day-to-day for now, and since Cleveland has an off-day on Monday, it seems very likely that Rosario will be sat for Sunday’s game to give him two full days to rest and recover.  Rosario has struggled badly this season, hitting only .224/.270/.314 over 226 plate appearances, and he has the fourth-lowest fWAR (-0.7) of any qualified player in 2023.  Any of Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman, or Brayan Rocchio could get more playing time at shortstop if Rosario has to miss an extended amount of time.
  • Joely Rodriguez was warming up in preparation of entering tonight’s Rays/Red Sox game, but Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe) that Rodriguez had to halt his warmup due to soreness in his bicep and shoulder area.  More will be known once some tests are run, but it certainly looks like Rodriguez could be headed back to the IL.  An oblique injury in Spring Training already delayed Rodriguez’s season debut until May 17, and the left-hander has struggled to an 18.00 ERA over his four innings and five appearances.
  • The Marlins told reporters (including Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extra Base) that Avisail Garcia’s rehab assignment has been temporarily halted, as he will receive examination on his sore back.  Garcia has already been on the IL since April 29 due to lower back tightness, so while the team described the setback as “minor,” it is a little worrisome to see Garcia further delayed.  The outfielder has played in four games with Triple-A Jacksonville during his rehab assignment.

Red Sox Designate Ryan Brasier For Assignment

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11:58PM: Rodriguez will be activated from the 15-day IL to take Brasier’s roster spot on Monday, The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reports.

10:12PM: The Red Sox have designated Ryan Brasier for assignment, as the right-hander himself told reporters (including Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe) tonight in the aftermath of a tough outing against the Cardinals.  Brasier allowed three runs over 2 1/3 innings of relief in a 9-1 Red Sox loss.

No corresponding move is yet known, though manager Alex Cora told reporters over the weekend that Joely Rodriguez was going to be activated from the 15-day injured list on Monday, so the Sox could be clearing room for Rodriguez’s return.  Rodriguez suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain in mid-March during Spring Training, and has yet to pitch this season.

Tonight’s performance inflated Brasier’s season ERA to 7.29 over 21 innings of work out of the Boston bullpen.  There is some level of misfortune in that ERA since Brasier’s strand rate (52.8%) and BABIP (.344) are both skewed, and his FIP is a more moderate 4.38.  That said, he has also posted below-average strikeout and walk rates, and Brasier is near the bottom of the league in hard contact.

The advanced metrics were much more favorable to Brasier last year, but the bottom-line results still weren’t there, as the righty had a 5.78 ERA over 62 1/3 innings in 2022.  With the lack of results stretching into a second season, the Sox have opted to part ways with a reliever who has had his share of ups and downs over six years in Boston, but for the most part was a solid hurler prior to the start of the 2022 season.

After pitching with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 2017, Brasier returned from Japan to sign a minor league deal with the Red Sox, and ended up unexpectedly emerging as an ace reliever for the eventual World Series champions.  Brasier posted a 1.60 ERA over 33 2/3 regular-season innings and then a 1.04 ERA in 8 1/3 postseason innings to help the Sox win the title.

Brasier’s 2019 season was a lot shakier, but he posted better results in 2020-21, with a 3.16 ERA albeit over only 37 innings.  Brasier’s workload was limited by the shortened 2020 regular season, and then a 2021 campaign that saw him miss most of the year due to a calf strain and then a concussion after he was struck in the head by a line drive during a simulated game.

The 35-year-old is in his final year of arbitration eligibility, and is still owed roughly $1.5MM of his $2MM salary for the 2023 season.  It doesn’t seem all that likely that another team will claim Brasier off DFA waivers, so the Red Sox will likely end up eating the salary if they end up releasing the righty, or they could simply outright him down to Triple-A.  If Brasier is signed by a new team after being released, the new club will only owe the prorated portion of the Major League minimum salary, with Boston covering the remainder of the $1.5MM.

Red Sox’ Joely Rodríguez Diagnosed With Grade 2 Oblique Strain

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Red Sox left-hander Joely Rodríguez has a Grade 2 oblique strain, manager Alex Cora tells Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Cora declined to provide a timetable for the southpaw, saying only that he would return “whenever he’s ready.” However, even mild oblique strains usually lead to absences of a few weeks, so Rodríguez seems slated to miss significant time.

Rodríguez, 31, was signed in the offseason to a one-year, $2MM deal with a club option for 2024. He spent last year with the Mets, posting a 4.47 ERA over 55 appearances. He walked 12% of batters faced but got strikeouts at a 26.4% rate and grounders at a 53.8% clip. It’s possible that he deserved better than that ERA indicates, as his .303 batting average on balls in play and his 63.3% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of average. His 3.23 FIP and 3.54 SIERA suggest he could be better if his luck were to even out.

Unfortunately, he will have to wait a while to test that luck with his new club, as he’s likely going to be out of action for a while. Though Cora wouldn’t provide any specifics on the estimated return timeline, there are some recent examples with more details. The Rays, for instance, gave an estimate of six-to-eight weeks when Tyler Glasnow recently suffered his own Grade 2 oblique strain. Every injury is different and it can’t simply be assumed that Rodriguez is looking at the same timeframe, but that can at least provide a rough guideline for what might be on the table here.

The Sox were set to have two lefties in their Opening Day bullpen, with Richard Bleier being the other. There are no other lefty relievers on the 40-man roster, but this news will perhaps open the door for someone else to make the club. Ryan Sherriff was signed to a minor league deal this offseason and could be an option. He was reassigned to minor league camp last week but this new info could perhaps increase his chances of making the club.

If the Sox are interested in external additions, the free agent market still features guys like Zack Britton and Ross Detwiler. It’s also possible that some new names will join them on the open market as Opening Day approaches and other clubs make their final roster decisions.

Red Sox Notes: Rodriguez, Paxton, Meneses

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Red Sox reliever Joely Rodriguez left today’s game with what the team described as right torso pain.  The discomfort was visible, as The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham (Twitter link) described Rodriguez as “groaning in pain as he went to the clubhouse and was holding onto his side.”  The somewhat vague wording of the club’s official announcement is perhaps a positive sign that Rodriguez didn’t suffer an immediate oblique strain, or it could simply indicate that a fuller battery of tests has yet to be run to determine the left-hander’s status.

At the very least, Rodriguez’s injury creates some doubt about his availability with Opening Day just 12 days away.  Rodriguez signed a one-year deal worth $2MM in guaranteed money back in November, and the Sox also hold a $4.25MM club option on his services for the 2024 campaign.  Rodriguez and Richard Bleier (also new to the Red Sox, via a January trade with the Marlins) were penciled in as the bullpen’s left-handed options, but if Rodriguez has to miss any time, minor league signings Ryan Sherriff or Matt Dermody could have a sudden path to the MLB roster, or the Sox could opt for in-house prospects Chris Murphy or Brandon Walter.

More from Boston’s camp…

  • James Paxton threw 25 pitches off a mound today, and told MLB.com’s Ian Browne and other reporters that he felt “good.  I wasn’t thinking about the hamstring at all.”  A Grade 1 hamstring strain kept Paxton off the mound for 15 days, so the southpaw will have to start the season on the injured list to give himself more time to properly ramp up.  The tentative plan for Paxton’s rehab is for one or two more mound sessions, two live batting-practice sessions, and then a return to spring game action.
  • The Nationals got an unexpected breakout from Joey Meneses last season, as the 30-year-old made his MLB debut and proceeded to hit .324/.367/.563 with 13 homers over 240 plate appearances.  While it seemed like Meneses came out of nowhere, he actually came to D.C. after two seasons in the Red Sox organization, and Meneses hit a combined .284/.333/.530 over 369 PA at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2021.  Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes that while the Sox had interest in bringing Meneses back on another minor league deal, but since Triston Casas was going to be the priority at first base for Triple-A Worchester, Meneses might’ve seen a reduction in at-bats.  “If we had seen this coming, he’d probably still be here,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said.  “Sometimes guys just break through at different points in their career, different ages, different places.  Happy to see him be able to do that and just be able to sustain it in the big leagues and the [World Baseball Classic].”

Red Sox Sign Joely Rodriguez

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11:49am: Rodriguez will earn a $500K bonus for reaching each of 30, 60, 90 and 120 days on the active roster in 2023, MLBTR has learned.

10:28am: The Red Sox have signed left-handed reliever Joely Rodriguez to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2024 season, per a team announcement. Rodriguez, a client of L.A. Sports Management, will be guaranteed $2MM in the form of a $1.5MM salary in 2023 and a $500K buyout on a $4.25MM club option for the 2024 campaign, Chad Jennings of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).

MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo tweets that Rodriguez can earn up to $2MM of bonuses based on time spent on the active roster in 2023, plus $250K in each season of the deal based on games pitched. In all, it can max out at $8.25MM over a two-year term. Boston’s 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Pirates as a teenager back in 2009, Rodriguez bounced to four different organizations before signing with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball prior to the 2018 season. A strong two-year run with the Dragons (1.85 ERA in 87 2/3 innings) landed Rodriguez a big league deal to return to the Rangers.

Twice traded since that time, the now-31-year-old Rodriguez has spent a season with Texas and both New York clubs, pitching to a combined 4.28 ERA but more encouraging secondary marks. He’s averaged 94 mph on his heater, punched out an above-average 25.5% of his opponents and logged a huge 55.7% ground-ball rate. Despite a higher-than-average 10.3% walk rate, fielding-independent metrics like FIP (3.14) and SIERA (3.51) all feel that Rodriguez has pitched a fair bit better than his more rudimentary ERA would otherwise indicate.

In particular, Rodriguez has excelled at limiting hard contact. Last year’s paltry 85.3 mph average exit velocity, 3.8% barrel rate and 31.8% hard-hit rate were all among the lowest marks in the league. Statcast ranked each in the 91st percentile or better among big league pitchers. Rodriguez carried a notable platoon split with the Yankees in 2021 but, upon ramping up his usage of a sinker/changeup combination (at the expense of most of his four-seamers and sliders) was generally tough on lefties and righties alike in 2022. Left-handers hit .233/.320/.326 against him, while righties were actually even worse, at .220/.325/.300.

If Rodriguez can sustain those gains against right-handed opponents and simultaneously rein in his command a bit — he walked 12% of hitters in 2022 but just 8.7% in 2021 — there’s potential for him to elevate his profile and prove to be a quality bargain on this relatively modest deal.

Rodriguez will step into a Boston bullpen that had otherwise been slated to include just one lefty: Josh Taylor. It’s possible that Darwinzon Hernandez or one of recently selected Chris Murphy and Brandon Walter could eventually work their way into the mix, but left-handed bullpen help was a fairly clear area of need for the Sox. They’ve now made at least one move to address that — though others could certainly transpire — and done so in affordable fashion. With Rodriguez on the books, Boston’s payroll sits at a projected $133.8MM, while their luxury-tax ledger is just north of $153MM.

Mets Add Taijuan Walker To Postseason Roster, Joely Rodriguez Removed Due To Shoulder Problem

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Heading into tonight’s pivotal Game 2 of their Wild Card Series with the Padres, the Mets have made an injury-related change to their roster.  Newsday’s Tim Healey (Twitter link) reports that left-hander Joely Rodriguez has been removed from the 26-man roster due to a shoulder problem, and righty Taijuan Walker has been added as the replacement.

The specific nature of Rodriguez’s injury isn’t known, and he didn’t pitch in yesterday’s Game 1.  Due to the roster removal, Rodriguez is now ineligible to pitch until the NLCS, should New York advance that deep into the postseason.  In the bigger picture, Rodriguez is also a free agent after the season, so a serious shoulder issue could hamper his chances of landing a notable contract this winter.

It’s a tough blow for both Rodriguez and the Mets, as David Peterson is now the lone left-handed pitcher remaining on the Mets’ playoff roster.  New York is on the brink of elimination after losing Game 1, and with the margin of error so slim, Rodriguez’s absence could loom large given the number of several (Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Jake Cronenworth, Jurickson Profar, Trent Grisham) prominent left-handed hitters and switch-hitters in San Diego’s lineup.

The Mets have been thin on left-handed relief pitching all season, with Rodriguez serving as essentially the only reliable southpaw option.  Control was an issue for Rodriguez, as his 12% walk rate helped balloon his ERA to 4.47 over 50 1/3 innings.  A 3.54 SIERA paints a more positive view of Rodriguez’s performance, as other metrics as a 53.8% grounder rate, a solid 26.4% strikeout rate and excellent hard-hit ball numbers helped make him a valuable member of New York’s bullpen.  Rodriguez also had virtually identical numbers against both left-handed and right-handed batters.

Walker and Carlos Carrasco were stalwart rotation members during the regular season, and the Mets opted to leave them off the roster in the three-game series rather than force either pitcher into a somewhat unfamiliar role.  With elimination now looming, it’ll basically be all hands on deck for the pitching staff tonight and (the Mets hope) in a potential Game 3, as manager Buck Showalter will undoubtedly be open to all options in getting some critical outs.

Mets Trade Miguel Castro To Yankees For Joely Rodriguez

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The Mets have traded Miguel Castro to the Yankees for Joely Rodriguez, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. As noted by MLBTR’s Steve Adams, Rodriguez was signed as a free agent this offseason and thus ineligible to be traded prior to June 15th without his consent. He and his agent gave that consent in exchange for a $500K assignment bonus, which will be paid by the Mets as part of this deal. (Twitter links) Rodriguez is represented by Daniel Szew of LA Sports Management.

For the Mets, they have had an extremely busy offseason, upgrading their lineup with the likes of Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar. They also added Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to their rotation and Adam Ottavino to their bullpen. However, the one area of the roster they hadn’t really addressed was left-handed relief. With Aaron Loup joining the Angels, the only southpaws on the roster were candidates for the starting rotation. The club gave minor league deals to veterans like Chasen Shreve and Alex Claudio, but they clearly view Rodriguez as a meaningful upgrade, based on the fact that they were willing to give up Castro to get him.

After a couple of seasons with the Phillies in 2016 and 2017, Rodriguez headed overseas for a stint with the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball. After two solid seasons in Japan, Rodriguez was able to come back to North American via a two-year deal from the Rangers. In the shortened 2020 season, he put up an ERA of 2.13 over 12 2/3 innings. Things seemed to be going in the wrong direction last year, as his ERA shot up to 5.93 in July. However, the Yankees seemed to believe that was a small sample blip, as they acquired him as part of the Joey Gallo trade. He fared much better after the swap, with a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings in pinstripes. At the end of the season, the club declined their $3MM option in favor of a $500K buyout, but then quickly re-signed him to a $2MM salary, saving themselves $500K. With this trade and the assignment bonus, Rodriguez has made back that difference.

The Yanks evidently felt they had enough lefties to part with Rodriguez, given the presence Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge, along with closer Aroldis Chapman. For their part, they are receiving Miguel Castro, a right-handed reliever. Despite being just 27 years old, he has appeared in part of seven MLB seasons thus far in his career, spending time with the Blue Jays, Rockies, Orioles and Mets. Those first couple of seasons were a bit shaky, which is not surprising given that Castro was just 20 and 21 years old during that time. However, over the past five seasons, he’s established himself as a quality big league reliever. Since the start of the 2017 season, he’s thrown 321 innings with an ERA of 3.93. His strikeout rate was just 14.6% over 2017-2018, but has jumped up to 25.2% over the past three campaigns. Walks have been a concern, with his annual rate coming in between 10 and 15% in each of the past five seasons. He and the Mets agreed to a $2.62MM salary for this season, his final arbitration year before hitting free agency at the end of this year. He will slot into a bullpen that will be headlined by Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Clay Holmes.

Yankees Sign Joely Rodriguez

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The Yankees have signed left-handed pitcher Joely Rodriguez to a one-year contract, per a team announcement. Just three days ago, the club paid him a $500K buyout and declined their $3MM club option for the southpaw, but have now quickly brought him back into the fold. Joel Sherman of the New York Post relays that the new deal is for $2MM, meaning the club saved themselves $500K by letting him reach free agency for a few days. Although Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that there’s also $250K of incentives in the deal.

When the Yankees first acquired Rodriguez as part of the Joey Gallo trade, he had an ERA of 5.93 through 27 1/3 innings with the Rangers. Despite that high ERA, there were reasons for optimism, as he had an excellent 63.9% groundball rate, to go along with average-ish strikeout and walk rates of 23.4% and 9.4%, respectively. After coming to the Bronx, he logged 19 more innings with an ERA of 2.84.

This year’s left-handed relief market doesn’t have a lot of standouts, with Aaron Loup, Brooks Raley, Andrew Chafin and Tony Watson representing the cream of the crop. The Yankees have acted quickly and scooped up one of the options that they saw up close and clearly liked enough to bring back, as long as the price was right.

This acts as a sort of early birthday present for Rodriguez, as he will be turning 30 in four days. He’ll slot into a Yankee bullpen alongside other lefty options such as Aroldis Chapman, Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge. The club’s 40-man roster is now full.

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