Major League Baseball free agency is about to heat up, but the Arizona Diamondbacks lost one additional pitcher to the free-agent pool than they knew for a fact they would.

Right-hander Elvin Rodríguez came to the Diamondbacks as a waiver claim from the Baltimore Orioles in early September. Arizona was still alive for a playoff berth at the time and trying to gather as much pitching depth as possible, while the Orioles were giving young pitchers a look with an eye toward next season.

However, Rodríguez never wound up earning a call-up to Arizona, pitching five innings and allowing seven earned runs for Triple-A Reno. Now that the season has officially wrapped up, Rodríguez is hoping a fresh start will allow him to earn a big-league roster role.

On Tuesday, Rodríguez elected free agency, according to the official MLB transactions log. He did not have the requisite six years of service time that earns the league’s most well-known players the right to free agency, but he was eligible because he was on a one-year contract to begin the season and wound up getting designated for assignment twice.

Rodríguez, 27, has three partial seasons of major league experience with the Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Detroit Tigers. But he’s never made more than seven big-league appearances in a given season, and his overall major league ERA sits at 9.40 entering the offseason.

Rodríguez also spent last season pitching for the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese NPB, pitching to an impressive 1.80 ERA and earning himself a $900,000 guaranteed contract with the Brewers.

Arizona’s search for bullpen arms will continue, as high-leverage relievers A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez are in danger of missing most of, if not the entire upcoming season. But Rodríguez never seemed to be a big part of the team’s future plans.

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