Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Yariel Rodríguez

Yariel Rodríguez is a 27-year-old right-handed pitcher from Cuba. In February, he became a free agent. The Jays signed him to a 5-year, $32 million contract, making him the team’s biggest free agent signing of the off-season. It is a little concerning when the team’s biggest signing is a guy who hasn’t played major league baseball before.

Yariel throws a 96.2 mph fastball, a slider, curve, splitter and change-up.

He spent three years in Japan throwing for the Chunichi Dragons, pitching out of the bullpen. In 2022, he had a 1.15 ERA in 56 innings, with 18 walks and 60 strikeouts. Striking out 28% of batters will get you the attention of MLB teams.

He started for Cuba in the WBC, pitching 7.1 innings over 2 starts. Since then, he hasn’t pitched competitively.

What’s the Jays' plan? First, they need to get him healthy. He’s had a sore back. Yariel had back spasms earlier in camp and hasn’t pitched in a spring game yet. We’ve had no word on when we might see him on the mound. There has been little word about him in the last while.

But assuming he gets some pitching in before opening day, the plan is for him to pitch out of the pen and hopefully be a multi-inning reliever (with the regular caveat that the team doesn’t seem to do multi-inning relievers). Of course, with 17 days until the season starts, getting him past the point where he can get beyond one inning.

PECOTA and ZiPS don’t have projections for him.

Steamer figures him to pitch in 45 games (3 starts), 60 innings, with a 4.19 ERA and a 24.1% strikeout rate.