FARMBOY MUSCLE

said. “Our analytics guys did a nice job of confirming that, that his fastball does get swings and misses and there’s reasons for it. The breaking ball was a usable pitch. And our guys did a nice job of identifying somebody who hasn’t had much of an opportunity at the majorleague level that seemed to have majorleague weapons — just might need an opportunity.”

Rodriguez was playing winter ball in the Dominican when he signed with the Pirates. He’s pitched for the Aguilas Cibaenas since 2014, and this winter one of his teammates, briefly, was Jung Ho Kang, who had an unremarkable stint with the club and was released. Rodriguez decided to continue pitching for the Aguilas.

“My father’s always dreamed of seeing the Aguilas get a championship, and I just wanted to be able to offer that to him and allow him to be a part of that,” Rodriguez said.

Lo and behold, Rodriguez and the Aguilas won the Dominican winter league title. Yet pitching for the Aguilas had another positive effect: He started to attack the strike zone more aggressively.

“That atmosphere, the players that you’re facing, and the majority of the people that you’re facing, they’re pro ballers,” Rodriguez said. “Whether they’re playing in the major leagues, or Triple-A, whatever it is, they’re competitors, so it builds that attack mentality of let’s just go, let’s just go and attack.”

Rodriguez’s Pirates contract included an invitation to major league spring training. While the Pirates were impressed by his work in Florida, he began the season with Class AAA Indianapolis, where he struck out nine batters and allowed one hit over five innings.

The Pirates promoted Rodriguez April 13, and now, he’s on pace to accomplish a rare feat; as FanGraphs pointed out, just 1 percent of minor-league free agents are worth at least 0.5 wins above replacement, and Rodriguez already has produced 0.4 WAR.

“Now,” Huntington said, “he’s working hard to never go back to the minor leagues.”