Diamondbacks dive headlong into another long-term deal with Eduardo Rodriguez contract

It was around this time four years ago that General Manager Mike Hazen last stood at the Chase Field podium and helped a recently signed free-agent pitcher into a crisp new Arizona Diamondbacks uniform for a photo op.

Everyone involved is hoping, of course, that things turn out better with Eduardo Rodriguez, who officially signed a four-year, $80 million deal and was formally introduced on Tuesday afternoon, than they did with Madison Bumgarner, who threw his last pitch for the Diamondbacks in April before being cut loose with a year remaining on his contract.

The similarities between the two are hard to overlook. Both are left-handed. They were a year apart in age at the time of the deals. They received contracts in the same price range, albeit with Rodriguez getting one less guaranteed year. And both are being asked to help solidify the Diamondbacks’ rotation now and into the future.

It might be enough to make an organization hesitant to go down the same path. But as it turned out, the Diamondbacks weren’t. The club introduced Rodriguez, projected as their newest starter, at a news conference on Tuesday.

“You have to play in these markets,” Hazen said. “It is what it is. It’s the cost of what you have to do to get players like this. It’s just not something, if you want to go out and compete, that you’re going to be able to ignore.”

Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall admitted to some initial trepidation about the thought of another long-term deal with a starter but said that by the time he talked to Hazen this offseason about the idea he had warmed up to it.

“For the right guy, I thought, ‘I’d be more open to it,’ and I was,” Hall said. “In fact, we encouraged Mike. We said to feel free to go four years.”

Rodriguez is not Bumgarner, of course, and the two are different in at least one key area: durability. Bumgarner had demonstrated such an ability to take the ball on a regular basis — including deep into the postseason — that the mileage on his arm was a concern, one that proved to be warranted as his stuff regressed during his time with the Diamondbacks.

Rodriguez, on the other hand, has exceeded 200 innings only once in his nine seasons in the majors. He has missed time for a variety of reasons, and the Diamondbacks ultimately decided to push forward with a deal because they were convinced it was a lot of unusual, one-off type injuries and circumstances.

"I know, like, how to prepare and get ready for this next season, and I want to be part of that team that’s going to bring a World Series here,'' Rodriguez said Tuesday.

Rodriguez missed the entire 2020 season with Boston due to a heart condition brought upon by a bout with COVID-19, and his subpar results the following year were thought to be related to that. He missed three months during the 2022 season with Detroit, leaving the team to tend to a marital issue. Last season, he missed six weeks with an unusual “pulley” injury in his left index finger.

“Look, there is one-off stuff that happens in this game,” Hazen said. “You see it. When it happens on your team, you immediately are able to justify it. When it happens on another team, it’s a little of an unknown because you don’t have access to every bit of what exactly happened.”

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He said part of the organization’s lengthy sit-down with Rodriguez last week at the winter meetings in Nashville was spent going over some of his injury history.

“When he’s been out there and been healthy,” Hazen said, “we feel like he’s going to be a very strong contributor to this rotation.”

Another reason for the club’s willingness to do a deal stems from personal history. Both Hazen, manager Torey Lovullo and Assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye were members of the Boston front office when Rodriguez was breaking into the big leagues with the Red Sox in the mid-2010s, giving them firsthand knowledge of what makes him tick.

The Diamondbacks were far less familiar with Bumgarner when they gave him a five-year, $85 million deal prior to the 2020 season, and they later seemed surprised by some aspects of his makeup, including a reluctance to make certain adjustments.

With Rodriguez, the Diamondbacks already seem to have a plan in place for next year and into the future.

“I feel like he has given us a comfort of what he wants to try to do already,” Hazen said. “He walked into the meeting with us and kind of told us some things he wants to get better at. That made sense to us. We want to help him with that.”

Hazen added: “We’ve watched Merrill Kelly go out there and become better and better and better every year he’s gone out there. That’s not an accident. There’s work and there’s planned adjustments that he made — that he walks in wanting to do — and fine-tuning things. We feel like Eduardo wants to do those same things and is going to do those same things and get better.”

For his part, Rodriguez said he was drawn in by the comfort he felt with a Diamondbacks leadership team he already knew, and by what Arizona offered in terms of a year-round destination with both Salt River Fields and Chase Field within a half-hour’s drive of each other.

And, of course, the team’s proximity to winning a World Series doesn’t hurt, either.

“I know they’re hungry to win a World Series,” Rodriguez said. “I want to be a part of that. I know how they prepare and they’re getting ready for the next season and I want to be a part of the team that is going to bring a World Series here.”

Rodriguez, who turns 31 in April, adds another proven arm to a rotation that already had Zac Gallen and Kelly at the top and young starter Brandon Pfaadt ready to emerge after a strong postseason. It would figure to give the Diamondbacks one of the better rotations in the division if not the entire National League.

Hall said another factor in his openness to a long-term deal with Rodriguez was the future of the rotation given that both Gallen and Kelly are possibilities to hit the open market after 2025.

“Especially thinking long-term, what’s our rotation going to look like in three years?” Hall said. “To have a stable talent (like Rodriguez) there, if there are changes in the rotation, it’s good to have some stability there.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Eduardo Rodriguez introduced as Arizona Diamondbacks' newest starter