Rodriguez agrees to 1-year, $8.3M deal
After a year in which COVID-19related myocarditis prevented him from taking the mound, Eduardo Rodriguez will return to the Red Sox in 2021 on the same salary he received in 2020.
RodriguezandtheSoxagreedtoa one-year, $8.3 million salary for next year to avoid salary arbitration. He is in his final season of arbitration before he’s eligible for free agency after the 2021 campaign.
Rodriguez, 27, went 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA, 9.4 strikeouts, and 3.3 walks per nine innings in his breakout 2019 campaign, finishing sixth in American League Cy Young Awardvoting. Helosthisarbitration case with the Red Sox heading into 2020, resulting in his $8.3 million deal for last year.
Rodriguez was unable to pitch at all in 2020 when his COVID-19 infection (contracted at home in Florida before hereportedtoBoston for summertraining) led to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Thatdevelopmentrequired Rodriguez to avoid virtually all physical activity until early October.
He was cleared to resume exercise near the end of the regular season and is now amid what he recently characterized as a normal offseason program, with a goal of a full, healthy season.
RodriguezandtheRedSoxfound obvious common ground on his 2021 salary. To date, according to a major-league source, the two sides haven’t discussed the possibility of a multiyear deal that would extend beyond 2021, but the left-hander expressed interest last month in trying to reach a deal that would keep him in Boston beyond next season.
Nomination surprise to Frazier: OK, so even Clint Frazier was surprised. The Yankees outfielder said he had thought “maybe” when he heard the Gold Glove finalists would be announced, but when he found himself on that list at right field, he admitted it caught him by surprise.
“I saw it on Twitter, and I was kind of caught off guard,” Frazier said Monday night on the YES Network’s “Hot Stove.” “I know that there were a lot of people out there probably looking at their phone sideways thinking, ‘No way this guy should be on there,’ but
hey, I found myself on that list.”
— New York Daily News
Mets sign reliever: The New York Mets reached their first agreement with a free agent since Steven Cohen bought the team, a deal with 31-year-old right-hander Trevor May, a person familiar with the negotiations tells Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the agreement is subject to a successful physical.