Red Sox: Three contract extension candidates this spring
By Sean Penney
Red Sox extension candidate – Eduardo Rodriguez
Eduardo Rodriguez emerged as the leader of an injury-plagued Red Sox rotation in 2019. The lefty won 19 games while producing a 3.81 ERA and 9.4 K/9 to finish sixth on the AL Cy Young ballot.
Instead of building on his career year, Rodriguez was forced to sit out the entire 2020 season while recovering from myocarditis, a serious heart condition caused by his battle with COVID-19.
Rodriguez has deemed himself 100 percent healthy and arrived in camp this week ready to get his career back on track. The Red Sox will understandably want to see how he looks on the mound during a game before they are ready to endorse his optimism but a strong spring training could motivate them to approach E-Rod about an extension.
Rodriguez is entering his final season before free agency. If they are going to offer him an extension, now is the time. Boston has a long history of struggling to develop pitchers so they can’t allow one as talented as Rodriguez to get away.
There’s always risk when discussing long-term extensions and Rodriguez is no exception. He was fantastic in 2019 but even if we set aside the concerns with missing last season, Rodriguez doesn’t have the best track record of staying on the mound. Prior to 2019, he never made more than 24 starts or threw more than 137 1/3 innings in a season.
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The free-agent market has been brutal for many players outside of the elite class, which might make Rodriguez hesitant to test the market himself next winter. He hasn’t given any indication that he wants to leave Boston so with time running out to prevent him from considering other suitors, Bloom needs to find out what it will take to keep him here.