The Diamondbacks declined their $1.35MM club option on right-hander Elvin Rodriguez for the 2026 season. A press release from the MLBPA broke the news by adding Rodriguez to its updated list of free agents, and reporter Francys Romero added the detail that Rodriguez is already receiving interest from teams in Asia.
Rodriguez is no stranger to playing overseas, having already spent parts of the 2023-24 seasons in Japan with the Yakult Swallows. He delivered a 2.77 ERA over 78 innings in Nippon Professional Baseball, which led to a one-year split contract with the Brewers last winter to mark his return to MLB. The deal contained both the club option and a $900K salary for Rodriguez’s time in the majors in 2025, which ended up being 19 2/3 innings of 9.15 ERA ball with the Brewers and Orioles.
Milwaukee was dealing with a ton of rotation injuries early in the season, which opened the door for Rodriguez to make the Opening Day roster and make two starts over his six total appearances for the Brew Crew. After being designated for assignment in July, the O’s claimed Rodriguez but DFA’ed him as well in early September, upon which Arizona stepped in for another waiver claim. The Diamondbacks didn’t give Rodriguez any looks on their active roster, and his time in the organization will now end after four Triple-A appearances.
Rodriguez made his MLB debut with the Tigers in 2022, and his total resume in the bigs consists of a 9.40 ERA over 52 2/3 total innings. The righty allowed a whopping 21 homers within that small sample size, and keeping the ball in the park has been a consistent issue for Rodriguez even in his minor league career. Notably, Rodriguez allowed just a single home run over 45 innings with the Swallows in 2024, which may be why he could again be considering leaving North American ball. A deal with an international team would surely represent more guaranteed money for Rodriguez than a contract with an MLB team, as Rodriguez is likely facing just minor league offers this winter.