Giants All-Star Randy Rodríguez is a development success. What that means for the organization

New York Times

6 days ago

Randy Rodríguez, All-Star. It has a ring to it, but it would have been an absurd combination of words just a couple months ago. All of us spend months forming offseason opinions and molding them into preseason predictions, but it turns out the only way to be accurate is to say something like, 'Assuming the Giants get Rafael Devers, and Randy Rodríguez is an All-Star, they'll be in decent shape at the break.' Bless this silly sport.
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It doesn't take long to get used to new baseball ideas, though, so it makes perfect sense that Rodríguez is an All-Star this season. By all sorts of metrics, he's been one of the very best relievers in the game, and by some of the metrics, he's been the best reliever. By the ol' eyeball test, he's been astounding. He marries two murderous pitches with impeccable command, and if that sounds like the generic description of a perfect reliever, that's because it is.
Murderous pitches have always been Rodríguez's thing, as he's been throwing triple-digit fastballs for years at various levels in the Giants organization. That part about the impeccable command, though? There was a time when that would have seemed like science fiction, something as completely unthinkable as Giants trading for Devers. Rodríguez was always going to have a chance to succeed, but it was going to be with raw stuff. He wasn't supposed to be good at, you know, actually pitching.
It's easy to make too much about the development of one player. But if the organization can take credit for some or most of Rodríguez's improved command — and if they can be as successful with other pitchers — it could be the story of the next few years.
Every organization knows how to get maximum velocity out of their pitchers now. There isn't a race to be the best at it — it's something more like a 30-way tie for first place. Every team can get 97 mph out of their third-rounder from Calverston State, even the cheapo organizations that pay their analysts and coaches in company scrip. The next frontier is getting these pitchers to put that velocity where it's most helpful. The teams with an advantage there will have a serious advantage until the league catches up.
Rodríguez's success doesn't prove the Giants are now adept at turning raw, powerful arms into strike-throwing surgeons. He's a good story, but he's not a trend. Also, to be clear, we're only about 39 innings deep into the idea that he actually is one of those strike-throwing surgeons. Maybe it's wise to keep expectations reasonable on both counts.
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In the meantime, there's nothing preventing us from appreciating the impeccable command that's turned Rodríguez into an All-Star. The stuff was compelling from the very start of the season, but it's the command that's keeping his ERA under 1.00. So this is a good opportunity to highlight the pitches that aren't typically turned into GIFs. These are the pitches that get the least engagement when they get the Pitching Ninja treatment, if they get it at all. These are the quietly nasty pitches that you barely notice at the time.
You might have stopped looking at your phone to watch this pitch over the weekend:
And if you did, you probably celebrated the pitch by looking right back at your phone. It was a first-pitch strike, nothing more, nothing less.
Look at the wondrous majesty of that boring pitch, though! There's a runner in scoring position and an excellent contact hitter at the plate. There's also a healthy lead, a base to play with and two outs. That's a scenario that calls for the exact pitch Rodríguez executed perfectly there. If Jacob Wilson is looking for a slider, he's looking either up or in the middle of the strike zone. If he's looking for a fastball, he's not going to bother with a slider unless it's an obvious hanger.
That was a perfect pitch, give or take. And it's the kind of pitch that's more responsible for Rodríguez's development into an All-Star than any other. He's doing it with fastballs, too:
Again, that's a pitch that might not have caught your attention, even if you watched it live. The Giants had a four-run lead, and the inning had just started. It was a called strike on 1-1, big whoop.
What a marvelous pitch, though. A smooth, easy 98 right on the edge of the zone. A little farther outside, and it's a 2-1 count and a more comfortable at-bat for the hitter. A little more inside, and it might be in the middle of the plate. This is the kind of pitch that a gym teacher from 1964 could appreciate. It's a pitch that Albert Spalding could appreciate. You don't need metrics or spin rates. It's both the perfect pitch and completely unremarkable at the same time.
Watch for these pitches the next time Rodríguez is having an effective outing. He's typically good for a few of them in every appearance. He'll also throw a lot of pitches that are quite easy to notice and appreciate, like this one:
That would be a 100-mph fastball above the zone in an 0-2 count, to end the inning. It's another perfect pitch, this time in an easier to notice situation. And he has thrown plenty of these kinds of pitches, too. Here's a perfect slider in a situation that would have had your undivided attention:
I'm not even sure if that's the kind of pitch that makes for a great GIF. It's just perfect. Nothing Riley Greene can do with it.
Now that we've appreciated the corner artistry of Rodríguez, let's take a moment to remember where he came from. When the pandemic hit, he was a teenager with zero command. He had a breakout season when the minors reopened in 2021, forcing the Giants to put him onto the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, but his ability to throw strikes collapsed. He walked 5.8 batters for every nine innings he pitched in 2022, and that jumped up to 7.3 in 2023. It's not hard to get from the 40-man roster to the majors, especially for a reliever, but he was completely unusable on the active roster back then because he didn't know where the ball was going. He cut that rate to 3.1 in his first taste of the major leagues in 2024. He's nearly halved that number again this season.
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Now watch those videos again with that context in mind. Somewhere over the last couple seasons, the pitcher from the previous paragraph became the artist in those videos. If that's the end of the story, that's a pretty cool story. Look at how Randy Rodríguez can throw pitches of the highest quality, everyone.
If it's the kind of success the Giants can have with other pitchers, though, it'll be a much bigger story. Keep your eye on the pitchers in the minors who pair silly strikeout rates with sillier walk rates. See if there are improvements on that front over the next couple seasons. If Rodríguez is a one-off success story, there are still plenty of reasons to celebrate his All-Star selection. If he's not just a one-off success story, though, there will be a lot more All-Star selections — and reasons to celebrate — in the Giants' future.