FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joely Rodriguez was the very first free agent signed by the Red Sox following the 2022 season, and the club entered last year hoping he could become the lead left-hander out of its new-look bullpen.
That didn’t work out after a series of injuries limited the lefty to just 11 games, and following the year the Red Sox declined his $4.25 million club option, making him a free agent once again.
But the Red Sox hadn’t completely lost faith in Rodriguez, and shortly afterwards Boston brought him back on a minor league deal. Now Rodriguez is back in big league camp as a non-roster invitee hoping to earn another shot, and speaking to the Herald this week he said he’s fully healthy and ready to prove himself once again.
“Right now I feel 100%, ready to go and forget about the negatives, what happened last year,” Rodriguez said. “New year, new goal.”
When healthy Rodriguez has shown he can be an overpowering weapon out of the bullpen. In 2022 he struck out 57 batters in 50.1 innings while posting a 4.47 ERA with the New York Mets, and that season he also ranked among the game’s elite at avoiding hard contact.
But last year he could never stay on the mound, going on the injured list three separate times. He missed the first six weeks of the season with a right oblique strain, went down again two weeks later with left shoulder inflammation, and following his return in July he lasted another three weeks before going down for the season with right hip inflammation. Overall he posted a 6.55 ERA in 11 innings.
Keeping his injury history in mind, the Red Sox are taking it very slowly with Rodriguez this spring as he steadily ramps up. Tuesday he took the mound for the first time by throwing a live batting practice session to Vaughn Grissom and Jarren Duran, and catcher Connor Wong said he was impressed by the way Rodriguez threw.
“I thought he looked really good,” Wong said. “He threw a couple of breaking balls, I know that was a pitch we were working on last year just to get some things moving in to the righties or away from the lefties, he’s obviously got the really good changeup and can run the fastball up at times. If he can consistently throw that pitch I think it spreads the plate a little bit more for him, but I thought he looked good.”
It will likely still be some time before Rodriguez pitches in a spring training game, but if he can stay healthy and get back to his 2022 form, he could re-emerge as a viable contender for an Opening Day roster spot.
In the meantime, Rodriguez is trying to focus on what he can control and hope that things will work themselves out in the end.
“Do all your work, do all your things when you get to the game and you never know what’s going to happen at the end of spring training,” Rodriguez said. “My focus right now is to try and be healthy 100% and have a really good spring training.”