Dereck Rodriguez

Rodriguez's stellar rookie campaign looked like a house of cards and indeed it was. His performance cratered in his sophomore season and Rodriguez was demoted to the minors and ultimately to the bullpen. He was even worse in relief, posting a 6.53 ERA compared to a 5.40 ERA as a starter. The right-hander's already-low strikeout rate fell to 16.2% while his walk rate ticked up to 8.2%. His HR/9 nearly tripled, going from 0.68 to 1.91, and the long ball was a problem at home, on the road and versus lefties and righties. He's the son of a Hall of Famer, but Rodriguez doesn't throw his fastball hard or with any spin, he doesn't challenge hitters in the strike zone with that pitch and he doesn't get swinging strikes with his secondary offerings. He has little appeal as a starter and even less as a reliever, as realistically he doesn't have the stuff to be the closer.

On the surface, Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Famer Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, had a brilliant rookie season and appears worthy of inclusion in that tier of emerging frontline starters with the likes of Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty. That's why it's important to get under the hood -- Rodriguez is nowhere near as good as those aforementioned arms. He managed just an 18.3% strikeout rate, and even that mark may have been higher than he deserved (8.6% swinging-strike rate and 57.5% first-pitch strike rate). His walk rate was decent enough at 7.4%, but he had just a 42.7 Zone%, which doesn't portend great control numbers moving forward. He does have the fortune of pitching in the cavernous Oracle Park (formerly AT&T Park), but Rodriguez is not a big groundball pitcher and his opponents' hard-hit rate of 39.4% suggests the long ball could become a problem on the road. If the price gets any higher than a few bucks, pass.