Unowned
Yerry Rodriguez, P
Edit player ✎
Baseball Reference →
FanGraphs →
MLB →
Scouting report
Rodriguez was a 50 FV prospect last year despite missing the back half of 2019 with an elbow injury, the latest in a long line of Rangers pitching prospects to have one. Rodriguez amassed 167 K and 29 BB over the 136.2 innings he had thrown in two seasons leading up to that point, and did so by relying heavily on his ability to locate a quality fastball and changeup. In the fall of 2020, back on a mound and competing in a live setting for the first time in over a year, Rodriguez was once again up to 98, and sat anywhere from 92-98 during his instructs/intrasquad outings. That was enough for Texas to add him to their 40-man roster during the offseason. His arm action is still quite long even though Rodriguez is a short-armed guy, and his arm slot presents an almost sidearm look but without the same cross-bodied delivery typical of side-armers. Its approach angle and spin (both axis and rate) give it an odd combination of ride and tail that makes it pretty tough to hit, and it's weaponized by Rodriguez's east/west command. When Yerry was really carving up hitters in the low minors, before he first had a long injury layoff, his changeup had more arm-side movement and bat-missing tumble than when I saw him during the spring of 2021. Yerry's arm angle makes it really hard for him to get on top of his breaking ball and I don't love its angle, but it does move enough to miss bats and his glove-side command of it is quite good. It needs to be, because this type of breaking ball is the kind that gets crushed when it's left in the middle of the zone. I'd really like to see a second breaking ball here, or at least a means of creating better back foot angle against lefties, though it's a little harder to envision for a guy of this arm slot. He needs something he can work inside on lefties, either a cutter or a more traditional breaking ball with better back foot angle. Maybe that can be found by altering Rodriguez's spot on the rubber depending on the matchup. I've cooled on him a bit but think Yerry is a likely backend rotation piece or could thrive in a Ryan Yarbrough style bulk relief role.