We have now reached the end of the line! We close it out with yet another catcher. I hope everyone has enjoyed this quick series. Let me know if there are any other topics you’d like me to cover.
Most importantly, Spring Training baseball is back tomorrow!
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**Previous Posts**
* [Day 1 – RHP Kervin Castro](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10x0vi1/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 2 – RHP Brenan Hanifee](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10xvqgb/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 3 – LHP Zach Logue](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10yt00h/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 4 – LHP Chasen Shreve](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/1118vtw/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 5 – RHP Trey Wingenter](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/1126ab8/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 6 – OF Jonathan Davis](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/112yndh/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 7 – C Mario Feliciano](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/113r9mj/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 8 – 2B Cesar Hernandez](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/114swfh/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 9 – 3B Andy Ibanez](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/1177gax/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 10 – C Andrew Knapp](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/118434y/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 11 – SS Jermaine Palacios](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/11909db/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 12 – C Michael Papierski](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/119ymyo/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
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**Julio E. Rodriguez – C**
6’0, 245
06/11/1997
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**Last Year**
|Year|Team|G|PA|AB|R|H|2B|3B|HR|RBI|SB|CS|BB|BA|OBP|SLG|
:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
|2022|STL (AA) |68|269|218|33|55|7|0|11|50|2|0|47|.252|.387|.436|
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**Overview**
Signed by the Cardinals as a 19-year-old international free agent in 2016, Rodriguez entered the organization with relatively low expectations. In his first season of professional baseball however, those expectations began to inflate. Slashing .322/.400/.580 with seven homers and 37 RBI in the Dominican Summer League, Rodriguez showed more potential with his bat than most had anticipated.
Rodriguez continued to progress through the minors and managed to make it to Double-A in 2019, where had mixed results over the course of 14 games. His progress was halted in 2020 with COVID wiping away the season, but headed into 2021 he found himself at #16 on MLB Pipeline’s top 30 Cardinals Prospects list. Injuries and a down year at the plate negatively impacted his prospect ranking and after spending last year in Double-A once again, Rodriguez elected free agency and signed a minor league contract with the Tigers in December.
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**The Good**
Rodriguez was signed by the Cardinals due to his ability and perceived upside behind the plate and his 300+ games as a professional have only stood to bolster that reputation. At any level he’s performed, Rodriguez has been a steady presence as a defensive player and has been able to show off his cannon for an arm.
As a receiver, Rodriguez is great moving laterally and will rarely let errant pitches slip by him; generally speaking, he only allows around four passed balls per year. For reference, the MLB leaders in most passed balls allowed over the past decade or so have featured Gary Sanchez with 18, Russell Martin with 19 and former Tiger Jarrod Saltalamacchia with 26.
Aside from his ability to stay in front of the ball, Rodriguez also excels at cutting down runners on the basepaths. At his worst in the minors, Rodriguez is typically right around Major League average of 30% caught stealing, but he has moments that are much better. In 2018 he cut down 47% of would-be base stealers, while in 2019 and 2021 in Double-A he threw out an incredible 62% and 64% of attempted base stealers, respectively.
Overall, Rodriguez has had his fair share of struggles while in the batter’s box, but this past season he put together the best performance of his career. His BB% spiked all the way to 17.5%, which was up from 6.1% the previous season. He hit a career-high in homers with 11 and [saw his batting average climb](https://www.mlb.com/video/julio-e-rodriguez-s-rbi-single?q=Julio%20E.%20Rodriguez&cp=CMS_FIRST&qt=FREETEXT&p=0) from .196 to .252.
**The Bad**
He has made strides at the plate and put together what was most likely his best season as a professional offensively, but Rodriguez needs to show consistency and maintain or even build upon his 2022 season.
Prior to the relative ‘breakout’ campaign of 2022, Rodriguez had shown himself to be an impatient hitter that struggled with making solid contact. In 2019 at the Double-A level he posted a BB% of just 4.3%, while in 2021 it stood at just 6.1%. Paired with K% of 31.9% and 20%, it’s safe to say that pitchers generally did not fear Rodriguez coming to the plate.
Along with his challenges with taking walks and swinging and missing, Rodriguez has not shown a lot of pop in his bat. His career-high of 11 home runs this past year topped previous performances of 7 and 8 homers and was done so on the back of the highest flyball/home run ratio of his career. While that could be in part due to him pulling the ball and putting it in the air far more often than normal, he needs to prove that it is sustainable.
These difficulties at the plate put Rodriguez’s roster spot with the Cardinals in a relatively tenuous spot in recent years. Struggling in 2021, Rodriguez spent most of the season either splitting time or as a backup to Pedro Pages and Nick Raposo who were each above him on the organizational depth chart.
**The Outlook**
There’s a lot to like about Rodriguez behind the plate; his arm is genuinely a sight to see and he’s responsible in his management of a game. The flashes that he showed at the plate this year were promising, but they’ll need to be consistent this year if he wants to find his footing within the Tigers organization.
As you have been able to see throughout this series, there are a handful of catchers that could find themselves moving anywhere from Double-A to back-up at the MLB level, so Rodriguez may find himself in a similar fight for playing time this year. With all of the talent ahead of him it may be tough for Rodriguez to find his place above Erie, but a consistent showing at the plate would go a long way in improving his standing.
2 comments
We got the 2022 rookie of the year on our team and people still wanna say we suck smh 🙄
4/13 NRIs were Catchers. Sounds like Avila left the cupboard bare at the position organizationally.
Thanks for doing this series. Of these 13, would you rank as top 1 or 2 to make the opening day?