Eduardo Rodriguez Has A New Pitch And The Red Sox Are Ecstatic About It
The Boston Red Sox are hard at work toward repeating as World Series champions. While everyone might be excited about Chris Sale and David Price, I also hear people rumbling about Eduardo Rodriguez.
Eduardo Rodriguez unveils a new pitch that has everyone from Chris Sale to Pedro Martinez buzzing at Red Sox camp | WEEI https://t.co/wfpgiJiJiy
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) February 20, 2019
Rodriguez has been injured in each of his last three seasons with the Red Sox. Reports are saying that he’s now in the best shape of his life and ready to get the 2019 season started.
Eduardo Rodriguez’s 2018 Season
Before I reveal the actual new pitch, let’s look at Eduardo Rodriguez’s season in 2018. Rodriguez’s 2018 was actually pretty good on the surface. He was 13-5 with a 3.82 ERA in 23 starts. He didn’t throw over 130 innings last season, but he was still able to be efficient when he was healthy with the Red Sox last season. Being behind Chris Sale, David Price, and Rick Porcello definitely helped Rodriguez ease back into things when he was healthy in 2018.
The Actual Pitch
The new pitch that Eduardo Rodriguez is working on is a slider.
Red Sox’s Eduardo Rodriguez has new slider thanks to Chris Sale, Pedro Martinez, wants to get to point where he’s ‘able to win’ a Cy Young https://t.co/7do5k3Oi6H
— Christopher Smith (@SmittyOnMLB) February 19, 2019
As you can see, Red Sox great Pedro Martinez and Red Sox ace Chris Sale are very excited for Rodriguez. Remember, he only threw a fastball, change-up, and cut fastball last season. He relied heavily on his fastballs to get him through all of his outings.
In Conclusion
This is a great development that needs to happen. There were rumors that Rodriguez tried to develop an off-speed last year in Spring Training. But, that didn’t really work out. If he can add a wipe-out slider into his repertoire, then he’s a very dangerous pitcher.
-Alan Nahigian (BigAl2793)