I love pitchers and that’s a shock to nobody. I throughly enjoy pitching and examining the good, bad, and ugly with them. One of the more intriguing rotations to me is the Arizona Diamondbacks. Recently, I have touched on how Brandon Pfaadt deserves his flowers and recognition for what he is doing for the rotation. That’s the good. Now onto the bad, which is how Eddie Rodriguez is entering some bad territory.

Eddie Rodriguez Has Not Been Great for the Snakes

Remember when the Diamondbacks signed Jordan Montgomery after he came off a solid postseason run with the eventual World Series Champions Texas Rangers? Yeah, he missed alot of Spring Training, but so did Blake Snell and he managed to turn it around. Montgomery did not and he had a dreadful 2024 season, who finished with a 6.23 ERA, which was the worst in the last three seasons. His WHIP sky rocketed and he was a shell of his former self. Oh, and the front office admitted it was an ugly signing and now he’s on the shelf with Tommy John.

Montgomery was horrendous, allowing 81 earned runs (2nd most among Diamondbacks pitchers). It got to the point where they even bumped Montgomery to the bullpen. The issue is that Rodriguez is entering these same waters and that’s not a good sign.

Rodriguez was coming off an injury after his signing and did not make a full season in 2024. He did make 10 starts and finished with 5.04 ERA, which you can’t entirely gripe about cause of injury. You roll with those punches and onto 2025.

Well, 2025 has been quite dreadful. Rodriguez had made 8 starts for the Diamondbacks and has the worst ERA in the rotation (6.86). Sounds awfully familiar to Montgomery. In these 8 starts, Rodriguez has managed to allow the fourth most earned runs amongst qualified pitchers. He somehow has managed to have the same ingredients to Montgomery and the results are awfully similar. For a Diamondbacks team that has aspirations to contend and plays in a division that is the best in baseball, they can’t afford for him to be lackluster.

Rodriguez is seeing his pitchers get hit harder than a season before and also batters seeing more success off of them compared to last season. He finds himself falling behind in counts, as his first pitch strike count has gone down nearly 5%.

The biggest issue for Rodriguez is the home runs. Players are beating him deep more often. He’s averaging 1.77 HR/9, and allowed the same amount of home runs this year (8) than he did all of last season. The K% is better and the walks are even better, but the results are not there.

With this all being said, the organization does have options to role with if they feel like this ends up being a similar situation to last season.

The In-House Options

There are some very intriguing options. One of the main issues for the Diamondbacks is the back of the bullpen. It’s not to say it’s been bad, but they are crunched by injuries and need help. The organization did reinstate Kendall Graverman, so there is some light coming from the end of the tunnel. But one pitcher that I do wish stuck around longer was Cristian Mena.

Rodriguez was so bad against the Dodgers, that Mena came in for relief and the team was able to storm back. He was the best pitcher that entire game because Roki Sasaki was no better. One option the team does have in the bullpen is Ryne Nelson.

He does have a 5.01 ERA, but a 3.42 FIP. In 23 innings of work, he has a 23.5% strikeout rate and has a .213 average against to go with a 1.16 WHIP. He does get hit hard, but he has the stuff and the tools to be an effective starter. It can’t be much worse than Rodriguez right?

I am a big fan of Rodriguez. But he seems to be on the same trajectory as Montgomery and that is a bad sign if you are the front office seeing that.