Phillies acquire Rodriguez to finalize Padilla swap

In a deal that’s being called "addition by subtraction," the Phillies have subtracted a 3.95 career ERA and filthy fastball in the form of Vicente Padilla and added a 5.18 career ERA in Ricardo Rodriguez, officially becoming the player to me named later in last week’s trade between the Phils and Rangers.

Rodriguez will likely compete for a spot in the growing mass of humanity known as the 2006 Phillies bullpen, with an outside shot at the starting rotation.

The 27-year-old Dominican went 2-3 with a 5.53 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) last season for the pitching-poor Rangers. In 13 games (12 starts) for triple-A Oklahoma, he went 7-3 with a 2.91 ERA.

The last time he pitched in the majors was Aug. 8 at Boston, getting the start and going 0.2 innings, walking two, allowing a homer and surrendering four earned before hitting the showers on his less-than-Texas-sized season. He was placed on the disabled list the next day with a right shoulder contusion and missed the remainder of the major league season.

In four big-league seasons with Cleveland and Texas, he's 10-15 in 36 starts (38 games), starting a career-high 15 games for the Tribe in 2003 before a torn labrium in his right hip finished his season.

The following year, he found misfortune again. After being traded along with Shane Spencer to Texas for Ryan Ludwig, he began 2004 with Oklahoma before missing two months with appendicitis. He returned and made four starts before he was recalled to Texas, where he managed a 2.02 ERA, amazingly doing so while posting a career-high 1.50 WHIP. Then in July, he suffered a nasty injury from a line drive that broke his elbow. His season was over.

Walks, hits, history of injury and surprisingly few strikeouts for a pitcher with a dynamic name like Ricardo. If there’s anything to be said, it's that Rodriguez, when healthy, appears fit enough to eat innings, and, perhaps, carry bags of baseballs or light grounds crew apparatus.

Projection
Scranton starter, trade chip or mop-up reliever following an early blowout, with an outside shot at earning an emergency start or two. Optimistically, think Jorge Sosa. Every season has a resurrection.

Comments

[ae]

good AAA numbers last year though, and isn't the PCL a hitters' league? not real exciting, but he could be one of those guys who gets hit-lucky one season and puts together a good year.

[J. Weitzel]

Positive thinking, ae. I'll play along.

That's a good line for PCL. A move to the NL and away from Texas will not hurt. The other positive of course is that Gillick has added yet another young-ish arm.

[Mike]

He was featured on some show I saw once following some Dominican baseball players trying to make it to the bigs. I forget what show it was and where I saw it but yeah.

ach, we can rationalize his AAA numbers and Texas-linked problems all we want, but fact is, we threw away Padilla purely for clubhouse/attitude reasons ($4 is pretty darn cheap nowadays!)... I loved Padilla's stuff, but I can see why we make this trade. That said, it bugs me that we have absolutely nothing to show for Rolen and Schilling once being Phillies.

[Ed]

ach, we can rationalize his AAA numbers and Texas-linked problems all we want, but fact is, we threw away Padilla purely for clubhouse/attitude reasons ($4 is pretty darn cheap nowadays!)... I loved Padilla's stuff, but I can see why we make this trade. That said, it bugs me that we have absolutely nothing to show for Rolen and Schilling once being Phillies.

[gr]

we traded a head case for an arm case. really nothing to be excited about here.

[Tom Goodman]

As usual, we on the decided outside have no clue as to what Gillick et al are really thinking in the Padilla for Rodriguez deal. There may be another installment of this transaction down the road or this may be it. If this is it, it looks like a perfect ending to the original Schilling deal in which the Phils gave up more than they got. Padilla should have started the season in Phila. in some capacity and been available for a trade by mid-season when, depending of course on how he'd done up to that point, he would have remained valuable to the Phils or to some contender out there. The current deal with Texas looks like one in which the Phils just wanted out no matter what the cost.

[gr]

i agree goodman, i think this was a bailout move on a guy who's very ungillick.

From Baseball America's trade central, on Rodriguez...

"The top prospect in the Dodgers system in 2002 before being traded to the Indians that summer and Rangers the next, Rodriguez showed real promise in 2004, going 3-1, 2.03 in 28 innings with the Rangers. But a line drive off the bat of Angels third baseman Robb Quinlan shattered his right elbow and ended his season, and his performance declined as 2005 progressed. Rodriguez went 7-3, 2.91 at Triple-A Oklahoma, earning a promotion to the big leagues, where his ERA jumped every month until he landed on the DL again with a right shoulder bruise. He finished 2-3, 5.53 in 57 innings with Texas last year. When healthy, Rodriguez pitches aggressively with a low-to-mid-90s fastball and a good slider."

If he throws low to mid 90's with a good slider for us, that sounds like a potential bullpen arm to me.

[Joe Siegler]

Here's the moment that RicRod stopped being an effective pitcher for Texas:

http://www.rangerfans.com/schedule/2004results/Jul/072204.html

That was when he was nailed on the arm by Robb Quinlan. Before that, he was quite good, I don't have the numbers handy, but I remember him doing pretty well numbers wise.

He was better as a starter for us than as a reliever, if I remember right. He did pitch in 2005, and was "OK", but not anywhere near the way he was in 2004 before he got hit.