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This right-hander is arguably the Detroit Tigers’ top pure relief prospect. While the Tigers have a clutch of starting pitcher prospects ranked more highly, such as Jake Miller, Andrew Sears, and Kelvis Salcedo, who might ultimately be best converted to bullpen arms at the major league level, Rodriguez could be on the fast track to help the Tigers’ bullpen later this season.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez hails from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela and was signed for a relatively modest price in the 2019 international signing class as he was turning 17 years old. He’s filled out somewhat, but the lanky, 6’2” sinkerballer doesn’t look too much bigger than his originally listed 170 pounds. It took him several years to figure things out as a young pitcher, but his progress has been rapid over the past two years. Despite his distinctive, long-armed delivery, Rodriguez has good balance and a lively arm, routinely throwing a high volume of strikes already.
Ultimately, this is a pretty simple profile. Rodriguez pounds the zone with a nasty sinker from a funky, low three-quarters arm slot that gets huge horizontal movement and sits 96-98 mph, reaching into triple digits at times in 2025. If there’s an heir apparent to Jason Foley as resident power sinker reliever, Rodriguez is the guy. If his command comes along a little more, particularly in terms of his breaking ball, he’s going to be a pretty good reliever who rarely gives up the big knock.
Rodriguez threw 63 1/3 innings between Single-A and High-A in 2025 without allowing a home run. He only allowed three in 2024, his first year stateside after two seasons in the Dominican Summer League. In short, it is really difficult to lift that sinker, and yet Rodriguez throws a good ratio of strikes and rarely issues walks. His 63.9 percent ground ball rate attests to that difficulty for hitters, and even when someone does get a ball in the air, a quarter of those are pop-ups. So, while he’s not much of a strikeout artist at this point, he doesn’t really need to whiff that many guys to be very effective out of the bullpen, especially against right-handers, who he jams constantly and ruthlessly.
Rodriguez backs the sinker with a pretty good mid-80’s two-plane slider that misses bats when he’s commanding it well. The pitch flashes plus, but as with the sinker, he has more control than true command at this point. To rack up more whiffs, Rodriguez needs to be better at spotting the sinker around the zone, particularly up top, where he does get whiffs, and to break off the slider to best effect more consistently. If he can take those steps this season, he may well jump from Double-A to the Tigers bullpen at some point.
Rodriguez doesn’t punch out at many hitters as you’d like, and that’s the issue standing between him and a setup role in the major leagues. But, if you don’t walk hitters, and you don’t give up home runs, you’re already well ahead of the game. Most encouraging was his 20 inning run to end the season after jumping to High-A West Michigan. He posted a 1.35 ERA/2.01 FIP down the stretch for the Midwest League champs, and pitched pretty well in the postseason too. If he can refine his command a little more this season at the Double-A level, it’s a pretty straight shot for him to the Tigers’ bullpen sometime this summer or as need arises.