Blue Jays pitcher Yariel Rodriguez opens up about his first season in Toronto as he expected more
Photo credit: Sportsnet
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yariel Rodriguez just wrapped up his first season in North America and spoke to reporters this weekend about how he expected more from himself.
Rodriguez spent some time in Triple-A but was in the majors for the majority of the year where he put up decent numbers for a pitcher that did not play at all last season. The Cuban pitcher finished the year with a 4.47 ERA and 85 strikeouts across 86 innings pitched.
Rodr�guez will finish the season with a 4.47 ERA and 85 strikeouts over 86 2/3 innings. Add his time in Triple-A Buffalo, and that workload climbs up to 107 innings, which is a fine place to be given where he started the year, especially if he continues to build up as a member of this rotation. -Matheson
Reporter Keegan Matheson sat down with Rodriguez to speak on his first season in Toronto to which he stated he expected more from himself this year but plans on working hard in the off-season and having a good year next season.
«This was not exactly the year that I wanted,» Rodr�guez said through a club interpreter. «I know I can be better than this. At the same time, I [came] from the Minors and got better. I'm going to keep working hard this offseason and hopefully have a good year next year.»
Manager John Schneider also said that the team expects Rodriguez to take on a bigger work load next season as they could see him easily pitching another 40-50 innings on top of what he did this year.
«I don't want to put a number on him for next year, but you can add 40-50 [innings] to that pretty easily,» manager John Schneider said, «with how he is in age, athleticism, all of that stuff. This is what we were targeting this year.»
Previously on Blue Jays Insider
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