The man who rejected the Los Angeles Dodgers is a ‘free agent’ again.
Detroit Tigers’ left-handed ace Eduardo Rodriguez, 30, will be entering free agency. “Rodriguez has opted out and will join the free agent market,” MLB.com reported on Friday.굿모닝토토
The move was already expected. Detroit had put Rodriguez on the trade market after the season in case he opted out, and was actually on the verge of making a deal with the Dodgers. However, Rodriguez vetoed the trade, and the deal was never finalized.
At the time, Rodriguez cited family reasons for wanting to stay in Detroit, but The Athletic reported that Rodriguez’s camp “asked the Dodgers to add another year and $20 million to his contract in exchange for waiving his opt-out rights,” which the Dodgers refused to do, triggering the trade veto.
Rodriguez, who remained in Detroit after the no-trade drama, opted out as expected and is considered one of the top starting pitchers on the free agent market.
MLB.com ranked Rodriguez 12th overall in its free agent rankings. He is one spot above Lee Jung-hoo, who is ranked 13th.
“Rodriguez had a great first half, and after missing about five weeks with a finger injury, he held teams to two earned runs or less in eight of his 15 starts since returning,” said MLB.com, which predicted Rodriguez would be highly sought after, “considering there are so many teams across the league in need of quality starters.”
Rodriguez has pitched 152⅔ innings in 26 games this year, going 13-9 with a 3.30 ERA. After making his major league debut in a Boston Red Sox uniform in 2015, Rodriguez went 10-6 with a 3.85 ERA that year and earned a spot in the starting rotation, then went 13-5 with a 3.82 ERA in 2018 and was part of a World Series championship team, and in 2019 he went 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA in a career-high 203⅓ innings, finishing sixth in American League Cy Young Award voting.
After remaining with Boston through 2021, Rodriguez declared free agency and signed a five-year, $77 million deal with Detroit. After two years in Detroit, Rodriguez opted out of his three-year, $49 million contract to hit the free agent market. Local media is speculating that he will sign a contract to offset the three years and $49 million he gave up.
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