The New York Yankees are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to shoring up their pitching staff for next season.
The Yankees signed 35-year-old pitcher Wilking Rodriguez to a minor league deal in December. Based on what he’s shown thus far in spring training, the Venezuelan appears to have a real shot at cracking New York’s big league roster.
According to MLB reporter Joel Sherman, Yankees officials have included Rodriguez’s name “on the short list” to be among the team’s bullpen arms on Opening Day.
Rodriguez has played in just two MLB games in his career. Both appearances came as a relief pitcher for the Kansas City Royals way back in 2014. He was spotless in his one inning of work against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 3 of that year. Three days later, Rodriguez allowed two baserunners but wiggled out of the jam to keep his MLB career ERA at zero.
The last team Rodriguez faced was, fittingly, the Yankees.
Since departing from the Royals that season, Rodriguez has played in Mexico, Venezuela, and Italy. He has also had two major shoulder surgeries since then but has worked his way back to relatively full health.
If the Yankees do end up keeping Rodriguez and he plays on Opening Day, he would have a 3,947-day gap in his MLB career. That would rank among the top 10 largest gaps between games played in MLB history.
Rodriguez had a rough start to his spring training tenure in a March 2 contest against the Atlanta Braves. He gave up five runs, only one of which was earned, in a 7th inning that saw the Yankees’ infield commit two errors. He has allowed just one run in 4.1 innings of work since then, dropping his spring training ERA to a respectable 3.86.
