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Young Padres Reliever Is Already Drawing K-Rod Comps
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- Young Padres Reliever Is Already Drawing K-Rod Comps
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
San Diego Padres reliever Bradgley Rodriguez came into this season as a bit of a question mark. The Padres have known they have something with Rodriguez for some time, but they weren't sure if he was ready to step up and take on a larger role with a major workload .
Consider those questions emphatically, and Rodriguez is already drawing camparisons to another reliever, Francisco Rodriguez , who was known informally as Frankie and went by the nickname of K-Rod when he came up with the Los Angeles Angels .
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The parallels are hard to miss, as the Padres reliever himeslf noted.
"A lot of people have mentioned that because of the glasses, because of the way I throw, I kind of look like him," Bradgley Rodriguez said through team interpreter Jorge Merlos in an article written by Dennis Lin of The Athletic . "But no, it's just myself. I just do the work out there, and it's just myself, really."
That alone speaks to how different Bradley is from his famous namesake. K-Rod was flamboyant on the mound, with a style that was unmistakeable, while the Padres' Rodriguez is quieter, although he does let loose every now and then with a primal yell and a double fist pump after a particularly big strikeout.
Pitching coach Ruben Niebla is old enough to have seen K-Rod's entire career, and he's less sure about the flamboyant aspects of the comp.
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"For me, Bradgley Rodriguez is Bradgley Rodriguez," he said.
Rodriguez has been a godsend for the Pirates this year. Through 60 innings in his first full season, Rodriguez has a 1.95 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings, per Lin.
Those numbers bare a striking resemblance to those posted by K-Rod, who also burst onto the seen with a talent that was impossible to miss. His teammates have noticed, including center fielder Jackson Merrill .
"It's impressive, his composure on the mound, especially how he battles out there," said center fielder Jackson Merrill, who, at 23, is the Padres' second-youngest player. "He's got 'it.' He's got the 'it' factor."
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But Rodriguez hasn't quite come from out of nowhere. The Padres signed him for $370K out of Venezuela, but Rodriguez also had to go through elbow surgery and some health struggles to get to where he is now.
Niebla is well aware of how important his young reliever is, and he's had to do some coaching along the way.
"Earlier in the season, we locked in on making sure he's ready to compete from pitch number one," Niebla said. "There was a part of the season where he kind of eased his way into innings, and all of a sudden it's like, 'Hey, we're throwing 21 pitches. With your kind of stuff, it should be more like 10, 12 pitches, and you're out of there.'"
The Padres have also been calling on Rodriguez in save situations and in some longer outings, and that, too, is by design, according to manager Craig Stammen .
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"We've been testing him," Padres manager Craig Stammen said recently. "He's been pitching a lot, and he's been pitching against the other team's best hitters in a lot of high-leverage spots, and he's turned into someone we can really trust."
The results speak for themselves, as the Padres continue to build out a bullpen that's one of the best in baseball, with Rodriguez a key part of it going forward.
