Quick Thoughts On Elmer Rodriguez's First Start
- Andy Singer
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
By Andy Singer
April 30th, 2026
Elmer Rodriguez made his first career start for the Yankees yesterday. Prior to his first start, I provided a scouting report to acquaint everyone with what Rodriguez brings to the table on the mound. I thought it would be worthwhile to check back in after his first start to see how that scouting report aligned with Rodriguez's first taste of big league action. Here are my thoughts:
I noted that Rodriguez has averaged 94.9 MPH on his 4-seam fastball and 94.2 MPH on his sinker thus far in 2026 down in AAA. Generally, he lives at 94-96 on those pitches throughout a game. Yesterday, Rodriguez came out firing at 96-98 MPH, a full 1-2 ticks higher than normal. He very clearly had a significant amount of adrenaline flowing.
That velocity didn't necessarily help. While he commanded quadrants fairly well, he was a few inches further from his normal locations with some frequency, which led to longer counts and more walks.
Rodriguez did settle down and looked a lot more like himself in the 3rd and 4th innings. He also increased his breaking ball usage as he got more comfortable, and I thought the slider and curve looked good. They didn't induce a lot of swings due the slider specifically being further from the edges of the zone than normal, but the pieces all look like they'll fit together. Even without his best command, Rodriguez induced an above-average 28% whiff rate, which is worlds better than what the Yankees were getting from Luis Gil.
Rodriguez simply ran out of steam in the 5th inning, and that had nothing to do with lack of build up. Rodriguez overthrew early, almost certainly had his heart racing the whole game, and just petered out early. I think that's incredibly common for a guy's first start in the Majors. Start 2 will almost certainly be a better gauge of Rodriguez's ability.
Overall, minus some overthrowing, my scouting report on Rodriguez held up quite well. All of Rodriguez's pitches work together to keep hitters off-balance and guessing. I don't see any knockout pitches in the group, though I think the sinker is a bowling ball that will get a lot of groundballs in the Majors. That said, all of his pitches play up because of the way he mixes them and commands them. With sharper command next time out, I think Rodriguez will be a real asset to this roster.
A lot of Yankee fans were upset when Carlos Narvaez got off to such a hot start last season with the Red Sox. He's since fallen back to Earth and looks a lot closer to the player many projected he'd be - a good defensive backup catcher with a weak bat. I think the player the Red Sox traded to the Yankees in that deal, Elmer Rodriguez, is nearly certain to be more valuable both in the short and long term to the Yankees than Narvaez is and will be to the Red Sox. I expect Rodriguez to spend many years in big league rotations as a key cog. Even in a slightly underwhelming debut outing, all of the attributes that made me like Elmer Rodriguez were readily apparent. With a touch less adrenaline, I think he'll be a key cog on the Yankee pitching staff in short order.
ERC did run out of gas, simply because they were reluctant for whatever the reason to pitch him much more than 5 innings in SWB, and usually pulling him in the 5th inning. But his lack of high percentage of pitches to strikes is exactly what he was doing in SWB, except for his last start there.
Carlos Lagrange, who is the schedule SP for SWB tonight, on YES, has also been on a strict pitch count and he too has hasn't thrown enough strikes.
But I'm gonna watch Rodón tonight in his rehab start. Threw 65 pitches last time out. I see no reason for him not to go to 75-80 tonight. He really looked ok except for wearing…
I was always both happy with the addition of ERC and frustrated with the loss of Narvaez. it seemed to become clear quite fast that ERC was very much a player worth targeting in trade.
the problem for me is that I do not believe the sox had targeted Narvaez. I do not think the sox asked for Narvaez. I believe he was the player the Yankees offered. is he going to be a great MLB player? maybe (or even probably) not, but why in the world would the Yankees intentionally trade away every RH hitting catcher in their system? just seems kinda stupid in my view of things.
i do not have any real proof that the sox did…
Rodriguez did settle down and looked a lot more like himself in the 3rd and 4th innings. He also increased his breaking ball usage as he got more comfortable
that is a significant thing item well worth mention.
I would point out, Polonius-style, that having a pitcher start the game throwing fastballs is common practice
and directing a nerve-plagued neophyte to throw hard in the early going is pretty good coaching
Do your think this has the potential to be "Danny Cater for Spark Lyle" redux? I know anything is possible, and it's unlikely it'll be that unbalanced (Cater was good for 1.7 WAR over the rest of his career, and Mario Guerrero, the PTBNL, was 0.0 in what was surprisingly an 8-year career), is this something the Red Sox are going to rue for a long time?