Statement start: Yariel puts on a show to earn 1st MLB win

SEATTLE — There he is, so vibrant and poised, the Yariel Rodríguez the Blue Jays have envisioned all along.

The complicated parts are behind Rodríguez now. He’s made the journey from Cuba to the big leagues, with stops in Japan and the Dominican Republic. He’s adapted and endured, so now it’s his time to pitch. That’s it, just pitch. It’s what Rodríguez does best.

Saturday’s 5-4 win at T-Mobile Park was the finest moment of his young MLB career, which is exactly what you could have said about his last start against the Astros. This time, Rodríguez shut out the Mariners for six one-hit innings, striking out six for his first win.

“This means a lot to me; I made a lot of sacrifices to be here in the big leagues,” Rodríguez said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “To get that first win is an unbelievable feeling. I’m grateful for this organization. Today, I’m grateful for my teammates who made those great plays behind me. It’s unbelievable.”

Rodríguez is so fully himself, one of the most intense baseball players you’ll ever encounter and an unintentional showman on the mound. Ending an inning with a strikeout, you’ll see Rodríguez follow the momentum of his follow-through to skip, skip, skip off the mound with a fist pump. When Daulton Varsho made another remarkable sliding catch and doubled up a runner to end the fourth, Rodríguez slammed his hand into his glove, raised his arms into the air as he howled in celebration with Varsho and pumped both fists into the air again.

Everything the Blue Jays do still needs to be framed within this disappointing season, which is still barreling towards them being sellers at the Trade Deadline and out of postseason contention beyond it, which brings about some conversations about the future that no one wanted to be having so soon.

In that sense, consider Rodríguez a 27-year-old top prospect. What made him the best move of the Blue Jays’ offseason wasn’t just his present talent, but his future upside. Signed through the 2027 season with club and player options for ‘28, Rodríguez can pitch his way into being a core piece of this rotation, and the Blue Jays are betting on it.

The conversation is over: Rodríguez is a starter
Rodríguez arrived a mystery. He’d started for most of his life, but pitched out of the bullpen in Japan effectively. The Blue Jays have loved the option to do both — or even something in between — but when you find someone who can start big-league games, you punch the gas and don’t look back.

“That’s how we viewed him when we signed him, but you have to see how it plays out,” manager John Schneider said. “He’s got every single weapon to do that. Between pitches, stuff, his ability to hold runners, fielding his position, he’s definitely proving us right so far, I think.”

Just by going through this routine consistently, things become demystified. Rodríguez isn’t the new guy trying to find his way around or guess what his role will be tomorrow, and that certainty has freed him up so much.

“I knew it would be a process, an adaptation,” Rodríguez said, “but I’m feeling a lot more comfortable every fifth day being in the rotation. I’m feeling good right now, very comfortable.”

There was also the question of workload. Rodríguez hadn’t pitched professionally in 2023 as he established residency in the Dominican Republic to become a free agent. Between Triple-A and the bigs, he’s now at 49 2/3 innings this season, putting him on track to creep past 100. His slow build-up and an early IL stint might have lined this up perfectly.

“It kind of, unfortunately, matched that up with the time he did miss,” Schneider said. “It’s a regular pitch count now.”

Desperate for depth
This organization simply hasn’t developed enough internal rotation depth. We’ll see what No. 1 prospect Ricky Tiedemann turns into, but this farm system has been very thin on legitimate starting options for a few years now. The only thing that’s saved the Blue Jays has been veteran starters who stay healthy.

If the Blue Jays can write in Rodríguez alongside Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos next season, that’s a fine start. They’ll need layers and layers of depth beyond it with Yusei Kikuchi entering free agency and Alek Manoah out for most of next season recovering from elbow surgery.

This organization needs Rodríguez to be a starter, period, and he’s officially introduced himself as exactly that.