Boston Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez capable of winning Cy Young Award

Boston Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez believes that Eduard Rodriguez is ready to take the next step to challenge for the Cy Young Award.

Eduardo Rodriguez finally had his long-anticipated breakout campaign last season which saw him finish sixth on the AL Cy Young Award ballot. Is there another level that the 26-year-old can reach to join the elite class of pitchers?

Pedro Martinez believes that Rodriguez has it in him to make the leap from the outskirts of Cy Young contention to bringing home the hardware.

"“I’m talking about Cy Young, close to 300 strikeouts,” Martinez said, via the Boston Herald’s Steve Hewitt. “He has the stuff. Chris Sale’s always in the hunt. Right now, Chris Sale is the more experienced No. 1 and the stuff that Chris Sale has, I think matches right there with E-Rod. I’m not putting that pressure on him, but I think the way his stuff looks, he could reach those goals and be in the mix for a Cy Young or something like that.”"

Rodriguez went 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA and 9.4 K/9 last season but his most impressive accomplishment was the career-high 34 starts and 203 1/3 innings. E-Rod has battled various ailments throughout his career that always seem to lead to a stint on the injured list. Last season was the first fully healthy year of his career.

Staying in a routine without getting sidelined for stretches did wonders for Rodriguez finding the consistency that has evaded him in the past. The sky is the limit if he can manage to stay on the mound.

"“I think now he’s expecting to have the kind of season he had and even better,” Martinez said. “I think that if he hits the 30-mark when it comes to outings and he hits the 200 innings plateau, I think he’s going to be in the mix for many, many things, because his stuff plays. His fastball is overpowering, changeup is outstanding, breaking ball is coming right along with the changeup and the usage. I mean, the way he’s using analytics, he’s using everything to his advantage. It’s just great to see. Now it’s up to us to hopefully see him healthy and enjoy the ride.”"

Overpowering might not be the most accurate way to describe E-Rod’s fastball, which ranks in only the 36th percentile in velocity, per Baseball Savant. He gets enough movement on the four-seam fastball to create the deception to whiff batters at a respectable 29.2% rate and it has been his best put away pitch.

Rodriguez also mixes in a cutter and sinker that don’t generate as many swing-and-misses but both have been more effective than the four-seam fastball when put in play. He limited opposing hitters to a .203 AVG and .247 SLG with the sinker.

Keeping hitters off balance with variations of his fastball is part of why Rodriguez excelled in limiting hard contact, ranking in the top 6% of the league with with an 85.7 mph average exit velocity and top 4% with a 28.5 Hard Hit percentage.

The changeup was his second-most frequently used pitch (23.8%) and easily his best in terms of getting hitters to swing through it with a 36.9 Whiff%. Rodriguez will occasionally catch hitters off guard with a curve that has produced solid results in a small sample but the seldom used slider remains a work in progress.

Pedro had one of the best changeups in baseball history so his advice will help Rodriguez continue to develop what has emerged as one of the best options in his arsenal to put away opposing hitters.

Rodriguez made great strides to tap into his potential last season but he’s still learning from his elders and gaining knowledge by studying analytics. The version we saw of Rodriguez is the best we’ve ever seen from him but it’s not the best that he’s capable of.