Eduardo Rodriguez's Detroit Tigers tenure featured its ups and downs. He had a rough go of it in his first season, but his second and final season was his best. Rodriguez posted a 3.30 ERA in 26 starts and 152.2 innings of work, leading to him signing a four-year, $80 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that winter. It's safe to say that since signing his deal with the Diamondbacks, things have only gone downhill.
Much of Rodriguez's demise can be attributed to injury. The southpaw missed the first four months of the season with a shoulder strain and was limited to just 10 starts. He struggled in those outings, posting a 5.04 ERA in 50 innings of work.
He's been healthy this season, but unfortunately, things haven't been any better for Rodriguez.
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Tigers dodged a bullet by not re-signing Eduardo Rodriguez
Rodriguez has made eight starts this season and has a 6.86 ERA in 40.2 innings. He's had a couple of strong outings, but for the most part, it has been a struggle for him. The 32-year-old has completed six innings only twice in eight appearances and has allowed two earned runs or fewer only twice as well. He's had as many outings in which he's allowed at least six earned runs.
Even with Rodriguez's struggles, Arizona's rotation is in decent shape with Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, Brandon Pfaadt, and Merrill Kelly in town, but given his contract, a lot more is expected from Rodriguez, who, when at his best, is a rock-solid mid-rotation arm.
With how poorly things have gone for him in Arizona, Tigers fans can be thankful that Detroit let him walk. At that price tag, it was probably unlikely that the Tigers would've brought him back anyway, especially after attempting to trade him at the trade deadline prior, but some fans did want him back after his superb 2023 campaign.
All Diamondbacks fans can do now is hope that the Rodriguez of old will show up at some point. Again, he's had a couple of strong outings this season, but he has been lackluster for the large majority of his Diamondbacks tenure. For this team to get to where it wants to go, Rodriguez is likely going to have to step it up sooner rather than later.