Rodriguez a silver lining for hobbled Tribe staff

CLEVELAND -- When the offense goes quiet, the attention quickly shifts away from the pitching staff. However, the Indians haven’t lost sight of how impressive Jefry Rodriguez has been in his three big league starts this season.

With a struggling offense and a hobbled starting rotation, the Tribe needs to find a silver lining, and right now it’s Rodriguez. The 6-foot-6 right-hander was acquired from the Nationals in the Yan Gomes trade last November after his rookie season, during which he walked almost as many batters (37) as he struck out (39) in 52 innings.

“Everybody who is coming to Spring Training … the guys upstairs send me pages on guys,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “It’s statistics, it’s reports from every scout that has seen him, so I got a pretty good feel for guys before they get there. But when you see them it starts to really help.”

Rodriguez had a chance to showcase his stuff during big league Spring Training camp with the Indians this year. When he was optioned to Triple-A Columbus, Francona noted that he had a big arm but needed repetition, because he hadn’t had much Major League experience. Last year, he posted a 5.71 ERA and a 1.538 WHIP in 14 games (eight starts).

But when the team lost Mike Clevinger to the 60-day injured list with an upper back strain, Rodriguez stepped up. The 25-year-old was called up two times to make spot starts and is now looking to earn a more permanent position until both Clevinger and Corey Kluber (right ulna fracture) return.

“He’s been a pleasure,” Francona said. “He’s a wonderful kid. Even when we had to send him down, he would thank us for communicating with him. He told us how much he appreciated this when he was going in the other direction.”

In three starts, Rodriguez has pitched to a 2.41 ERA (192 ERA+) with a 1.071 WHIP, averaging 2.4 walks per nine innings after averaging 6.4 in 2018. And while it looks like Clevinger will be set to return on June 7, the earliest date he can be activated off the injured list, Rodriguez is making a strong case to stick around until Kluber is back to full strength.

“He’s open-minded to listening to [pitching coach] Carl [Willis] and those guys,” Francona said. “There’s a lot to work with. He’s going to have ups and down. He doesn’t command the baseball like most guys when they’re at that stage. But, boy, you look at him and you’re -- even like last night, he didn’t really have much of a breaking ball, but he still competed with a fastball. If he can tighten up some of these things, you start to get excited.”

Tito remembers David Montgomery

Montgomery, the Phillies' president and CEO, passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 72 after a five-year battle with cancer. After beginning his career with the Phillies in 1971, he was promoted to president and CEO in Francona’s first year managing in Philadelphia in ’97.

“He was such a compassionate, kind, gentle man,” Francona said. “For somebody that had such an important position in an organization, he was so quick to laugh, not just with you, but at himself. I guess I choose to, I’d rather celebrate a wonderful life lived. Because he was a wonderful person. ... I have no doubt today he’s playing on a golf course where the fairway’s greener and there is no rough and no sand traps. Because that certainly wasn’t the way he did it when he played before. But he was a really nice man.”

This date in Indians history

2014: Asdrubal Cabrera went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs to lead the Tribe to a 9-4 victory over the Twins.