Rodriguez insists more time in Indianapolis is 'what's really best for me'

INDIANAPOLIS -- Endy Rodríguez felt the sensation in his fingers.

"Everything I hear about that," the Pirates' top prospect was telling me here at Victory Field, the home of their Class AAA affiliate, this week, "it's nothing good."

On April 20, playing on the road in Memphis, Rodríguez misfired on a caught-stealing attempt, throwing the ball into center field. His elbow didn't feel right. He was removed for the game. There were immediate concerns that the injury could be serious, and those only mounted when Rodríguez would eventually be brought to Pittsburgh for an examination.

The next morning, though, Rodríguez's fingers felt normal. There was some soreness in the elbow for a bit, but it would wind up being just a minor injury, and he returned to the lineup the following week. Now, he has no restrictions with his catcher work.

He caught a break. So did the Pirates, who came into this year with a different development plan for the player who's their system's top prospect according to Baseball America. A year ago, the plan was to make him more defensively versatile, giving him reps in the outfield, first base and second base. They wanted to maximize the ways he could get into the lineup.

But after a breakout campaign in 2022 -- one where he started in high Class A Greensboro and finished with Indianapolis, was named the Pirates' minor-league player of the year and saw him rise to Baseball America's No. 19 overall prospect -- the focus became on making sure he can be a catcher at the big-league level. He has the physical skills to do it, but there is still development to be done.

“The focus is very different," Rodríguez said. "Now there’s just one position where I can put 100% of my time and try to do a better job for the pitchers.”

"He is improving on the things that we’ve asked him to improve on, which are the finer points of being a catcher," director of coaching and player development John Baker said last week. "He throws very well, receives well, blocks well. But there’s more to it. We have some good examples of what it looks like when it’s really good here. I guess the intangible parts of the position."

That was a reference to Austin Hedges and Jason Delay.

There isn't a timetable yet for when Rodríguez will get his call to the majors. The Pirates have a history of not calling up their top prospects until June or later. During his weekly  radio show Sunday, Ben Cherington didn't offer a timeline for Rodríguez or Henry Davis, saying, "we didn’t set a magic number of games they need to catch, but it would be more than 18," the number of games Rodríguez had caught at that point.

"I’m sure at some point this season there will be a chance to assess and see if there’s a chance to make adjustment,” Cherington said shortly after.

Rodriguez, 22, is slashing .245/.352/.431 with four home runs, nine extra-base hits, 13 RBIs and a 4-for-4 in steal attempts. Thursday, in a 10-5 romp over Iowa here, he tripled and doubled:

There's certainly a large contingency of fans clamoring for Rodríguez to be promoted. He insists he's not part of that group yet, though. He thinks he has more to do in Indianapolis first to make sure that whenever he gets the call to the majors, he stays there.

“Everybody thinks me staying here is a bad idea," Rodríguez explained. "For me, personally, I think it’s a good idea because I’m learning about me. It teaches me a lot. How to control the game, how to maintain the pitcher in the game. I think that’s what’s really best for me.”

To help get there, Rodríguez has developed a routine. Get to the ball park. Stretch. Arm care. Batting practice. Work with the day's starting pitcher.

“I like to ask," Rodríguez said, referring to his penchant for asking questions. "Between the BP when we’re chatting, I’ll ask, ‘how do you like to throw.’ I’ll take his idea, my idea and put it together.”

For the first few weeks, Rodríguez leaned more on the pitchers. He was still learning them and wanted to see their stuff in game situations. Now that some time has passed, he's becoming more involved in the game planning and calling areas.

He does seem to have a knack for putting things together. In his most recent start on Tuesday, Quinn Priester felt he had his curveball working and wanted to keep throwing it with two strikes. Rodríguez pushed back a bit and called for more sinkers in some key spots. It worked, and Priester recorded seven innings of one run ball in one of his best starts of the year.

“I think he does a really good job not thinking," Priester was telling me. "He just goes out there and plays, and I tend to think between innings. I can be talking about this, this and that. He can kind of shut me up. Be like, ‘hey man, this is working. Stop thinking about it. Just keep doing it.’ ”

Rodríguez also helped Priester out the old fashioned way that game, hitting a home run. The next day, he drew a couple walks, stole a base and just missed out on a go-ahead homer in the eighth. On Thursday, he hit a double and a triple.

His slash line is not quite to where it was last year, but he is trending in the right direction again after a midseason lull. 

“When I was out, I lost a little bit of timing," Rodríguez said. "I was trying to find it again. But now I feel like I’ve got it.”

That's good news for Indianapolis, who could theoretically have not just one, but two hot hitting catchers in the future. Davis has been tearing up Class AA pitching, and it seems as though he will have to force the Pirates' hand at some point for a promotion to at least Class AAA.

The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the Pirates want both Rodríguez and Davis to get everyday reps as catchers. The team knows they'll need at least two backstops in the majors, and they want it to be those two.

If Davis was to be promoted to Indianapolis, he certainly would have a fan waiting for him in Rodríguez.

“I hope so," Rodríguez said about the idea of Davis maybe being called up. "He’d help the team… He’s f---ing good. I really like him. He’s a beast, man.”

Until then, though, it's the waiting game, something Rodríguez knows quite well. His season could have gone sideways if that injury had turned to be more serious.

Even with that in mind, however, he knows he has to be patient and keep working.

“It just comes down to what I can control," Rodríguez said. "My job right now is to give 100% of me… I don’t know if it’s this month, June, July, but whenever it is, I’ll stay ready.”

And when he does get the call?

“I’m going to the show and will mash a lot of homers.”