The Detroit Tigers reached an agreement with starting pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez on a five-year, $77 million deal, CBS Sports HQ insider Jim Bowden confirms. Rodriguez will have an opt-out after Year 2.
Rodríguez, 28, is the first big free-agent domino to drop this offseason as the market begins to take shape. He was ranked 19th on our top-50 list of best free agents available as the Tigers look to spend this winter. Our R.J. Anderson views him as a "legit mid-rotation starter" for his new team.
Rodríguez, who missed the 2020 campaign after he developed myocarditis following his bout with COVID-19, returned in fine form last season. (He probably would've won the Comeback Player of the Award were it not for Trey Mancini's own inspirational tale.) He accrued the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career, in part by throwing a new personal best rate of strikes. Rodríguez also ranked near the top of the league in suppressing quality of contact for the third time in five years. He's not the best bet on the market to give a team 180 innings a season, but he's a legit mid-rotation starter and his next season with a below-average ERA+ will be his first.
The left-hander was a durable part of the Red Sox for six seasons, earning double-digit wins three of those years, including the 2018 World Series championship team for Boston.
CBS Sports will continue to update this story as necessary.
