{"id":69393,"date":"2024-03-27T10:58:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T14:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=69393"},"modified":"2024-03-27T10:58:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T14:58:17","slug":"yariel-rodriguez-triple-a-buffalo-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/27\/yariel-rodriguez-triple-a-buffalo-blue-jays\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Free Agent Acquisition Will Begin Season in Triple-A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Francys Romero on MLB.com reports that right-hander Yariel Rodr\u00edguez will start the season at Triple-A Buffalo. Romero added that the right-hander is expected to make two to three starts at the minor league level. This is only for Rodr\u00edguez to build up his game before the Toronto Blue Jays look to add him to the 26-man roster. The 27-year-old signed a<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/11\/blue-jays-grade-offseason-pickups\/\" target=\"_self\"> five-year deal with Toronto<\/a> back in February. He entered the offseason as one of the most unusual free agents on the market.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Cuban right-hander Yariel Rodr\u00edguez (27) was sent to Triple-A, Buffalo, and won\u2019t be on the Blue Jays&#8217; Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n<p>Most logical decision taking care of his health and giving him the chance to properly build up.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to get 2-3 starts at Triple-A. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bsfHCOssw3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/bsfHCOssw3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Francys Romero (@francysromeroFR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francysromeroFR\/status\/1772698507981271060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Blue Jays Option Yariel Rodr\u00edguez<\/h2>\n<p>Rodr\u00edguez began his career as a starting pitcher in Cuba but converted to relief when he pitched in Japan. In 2022, his third year with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan&#8217;s NBP, he had a breakout season, tuning in a 1.15 ERA with a 27.5 percent strikeout rate in 56 appearances. Last year, Rodr\u00edguez represented Cuba in the World Baseball Classic which saw him return to a starting role. Instead of heading to the Dominican Republic, he decided to pursue an opportunity in MLB.<\/p>\n<h3>The Pitching Depth Around Rodr\u00edguez<\/h3>\n<p>When the Blue Jays decided to take a chance on him, they were intrigued by his youth and dominant 2022 season. He entered camp with the possibility of battling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manoaal01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alek Manoah<\/a> for the fifth spot in the starting rotation behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gausmke01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Gausman<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/berrijo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Berrios<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kikucyu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yusei Kikuchi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bassich01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Bassitt<\/a>. Unfortunately, that didn&#8217;t happen for Rodr\u00edguez, as back spasms delayed his spring. Manoah and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=tiedem000tar&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ricky Tiedemann<\/a> were also delayed with injuries as the fifth spot will go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/francbo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bowden Francis<\/a>. Manoah will begin the season on the injured list. Meanwhile, both Rodr\u00edguez and Tiedemann will be in Buffalo to ramp up for the season.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: \u00a9 Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Francys Romero on MLB.com reports that right-hander Yariel Rodr\u00edguez will start the season at Triple-A Buffalo. Romero added that the right-hander is expected to make two to three starts at the minor league level. This is only for Rodr\u00edguez to build up his game before the Toronto Blue Jays look to add him to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":69397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1071,7],"tags":[2650,28388,4223,1043,1331,5821,28389,2298],"class_list":["post-69393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-mlb","category-bluejays","tag-alek-manoah","tag-bowden-francis","tag-chris-bassitt","tag-jose-berrios","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-ricky-tiedemann","tag-yariel-rodriguez","tag-yusei-kikuchi"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}