{"id":662902,"date":"2026-05-11T01:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662902\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T01:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:26:17","slug":"blue-jays-to-select-yariel-rodriguezs-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662902\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays To Select Yariel Rodriguez’s Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jays will be selecting the contract of right-hander Yariel Rodriguez<\/a> from Triple-A Buffalo, according to reporter Francys Romero<\/a>.\u00a0 Sportsnet\u2019s Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi<\/a> note that Rodriguez will be added to the roster prior to Monday\u2019s game with the Rays.\u00a0 Toronto has only 39 players on its 40-man roster, so only a 26-man move will need to be made as the corresponding move for Rodriguez\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

After signing a five-year, $32MM contract with the Jays prior to the 2024 season, Rodriguez debuted in the Show by posting a 4.47 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 10.9% walk rate over 86 2\/3 innings.\u00a0 While Rodriguez technically started all 21 of his games in 2024, he was used as an opener or piggyback starter on several occasions.\u00a0 Rodriguez then made just one \u201cstart\u201d as an opener in 2025, and otherwise worked in a relief role while posting a 3.08 ERA, 22.1K%, and 11.4BB% over 73 innings and 66 appearances.<\/p>\n

The poor walk rates are the most obvious red flag from Rodriguez\u2019s first two MLB seasons, and his strikeout rates have sat only around league average.\u00a0 His 4.27 SIERA from the 2025 season is a better reflection of his performance than the 3.08 ERA, as Rodriguez benefited from a .228 BABIP and an 81.2% strand rate.\u00a0 On the plus side, the move to the bullpen helped Rodriguez bump his fastball up to 95.7mph (from 93.9mph in 2024), and he did a good job of limiting hard contact, though the righty allowed eight homers in his 73 frames.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays made the decision to outright Rodriguez to Triple-A back in December, removing him from the 40-man roster.\u00a0 The Jays probably wouldn\u2019t have been too upset if another club had claimed Rodriguez off waivers and removed the $17MM in remaining salary off Toronto\u2019s books, yet that same salary may have been the reason the Blue Jays felt confident in outrighting Rodriguez just to clear a 40-man slot.<\/p>\n

After delivering a 1.50 ERA over six relief innings for Cuba during the World Baseball Classic, Rodriguez has a 2.63 ERA and a whopping 43.1% strikeout rate over 13 2\/3 innings for Buffalo this season.\u00a0 These standout numbers are undermined, however, by a 15.5% walk rate, as Rodriguez\u2019s control has become an even bigger concern.\u00a0 This makes Rodriguez an interesting addition to a Jays bullpen that entered Sunday\u2019s action leading the majors in strikeout rate (26.1%) while also tied for the second-lowest walk rate (8.3%) for any relief corps in the sport.<\/p>\n

Mason Fluharty<\/a> hasn\u2019t pitched well and he has two minor league options, though optioning Fluharty to make room for Rodriguez would leave Joe Mantiply<\/a> as the only left-hander in Toronto\u2019s bullpen.\u00a0 Among the right-handers, Tommy Nance<\/a> is out of options, and Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles<\/a> can\u2019t be optioned to the minors without first being offered back to the Giants.\u00a0 (Miles is also pitching so well that the Jays are surely keeping him around.)\u00a0 Unless there is an unknown injury impacting the pitching staff, it will be interesting to see what the corresponding move is when Rodriguez is officially selected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays will be selecting the contract of right-hander Yariel Rodriguez from Triple-A Buffalo, according to reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85,182826],"class_list":["post-662902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-yariel-rodriguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}