Eduardo Rodriguez is coming off the best season of his career, and it appears the hope is it leads to a long-term stay in Boston.
The southpaw has two more seasons left on his deal with the Red Sox before hitting free agency, but if he has anything to do with it, he won’t need to test the open market. Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Pucino, spoke with The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, and he indicated the Rodriguez would like to stay and is ready to talk extension.
“He has two more years left of arbitration. I think that when the Red Sox are ready, he would love to remain a Red Sox,” Pucino said. “They already won a world championship and have given him an opportunity that he really appreciates. When they’re ready to discuss that, he’s going to have open arms and listen to what they say — but I think they have to be ready to do that.”
It will be fascinating to see if talks even take place between the two sides. The Red Sox now are under the direction of Chaim Bloom, who took over as chief baseball officer earlier this offseason. There’s already plenty on his list of things to do seeing as there are tons of (technically) former Red Sox who have hit free agency, so extending a player with two years left on his present deal probably isn’t a priority. The Red Sox do also have Chris Sale, David Price and Nathan Eovaldi inked to long-term deals.
Rodriguez on Wednesday finished sixth in Cy Young voting following a 2019 campaign in which he went 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA.
