Fools’ Gulch – While decisions still remain, news from Fool’s Gulch is that rookies Javier Rodriguez and Armando Duarte have made the big-league roster and will be travelling to Ohio as the team breaks camp. While this isn’t really as shocker in Rodriguez’s case, the 21-year-old Duarte’s injury history made his situation a bit up in the air coming into spring training.
“I’m feeling good,” the right-hander said. “The elbow is fine.”
Duarte missed most of last season with what team doctors said was an arthritic elbow, but he managed 11 innings while in Fool’s Gulch, striking out 15 hitters and locking down a 0.82 ERA. He’s a talented guy, who throws both a sinker and a knuckle curve with good command, and can mix in a mediocre change up when he wants to get a guy off-guard.
“He’s going to throw in the bullpen,” manager Bill Inkster said, “especially as he comes of that injury year. But we like the idea that if we need a start he can go out and get us four or five innings in a pinch.”
Some say it was Duarte’s emergence that allowed the team to release veteran right-hander Tristan Alfama, hence free up the money needed to sign Grant Lee to play the outfield role the club will need going forward. If true, and if he can remain healthy enough all season, Duarte will be the gift that keeps giving.
Rodriguez poses a .348 average in the spring, complete with a homer and three RBI. His 45 homer, .302/.432/.628 slash in AAA last season made George Robertson a free agent. At 24, he’s a bit older than the usual rookie these days, but he’s arguably been as ready as he could be for the past year and a half, having hit 83 homers in 174 games while in Indianapolis.
“It was a good day,” Rodriguez said after hearing the news. “I knew something was up when the gang started giving me the silent treatment. But it was good to see ‘Ohio’ on the ticket instead of Indiana.”
