Marlins should pursue Sean Rodriguez

The Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday designated Sean Rodriguez for assignment to make room for their signing of reliever Ernesto Frieri.

This is actually a bit shocking as Rodriguez has been a pretty productive utility player for Tampa Bay over the past five seasons.

For obvious reasons, the Marlins should consider striking a deal for Rodriguez’s services. Even in a buy-low scenario he could be used in a utility infield role and would be a valuable asset to an infield that is heading into 2015 with a lot of question marks. In a worst case scenario, Rodriguez, 29, could take over second base should one of Miami’s internal candidates, namely Donovan Solano, Enrique Hernandez or Derek Dietrich scuffle.

Or if Casey McGehee regresses to his projections Rodriguez could see playing time at the hot corner.

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But if he becomes next year’s Ed Lucas, I don’t think Marlins fans would have a problem with that. Rodriguez is a much more potent bat than Lucas, and showed more pop last year than any of the team’s current second base hopefuls, with 12 home runs in 259 plate appearances.

Last year Rodriguez hit .211/.258/.443 for the Rays and has posted an identical 97 OPS+ each of the last two seasons. In his seven-year career with the Rays and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Rodriguez has appeared at every position except pitcher and catcher. He is a career .225/.297/.372/ hitter.

The fact that Rodriguez was DFA’d means he is expendable and likely wouldn’t cost the Marlins too much to acquire. Maybe a low-level pitching prospect could get a deal done. The Rays always seem to covet pitching and the Marlins have the parts that could certainly make a deal possible in my eyes.

This clearly isn’t one of the big bats Jeffrey Loria promised to acquire to bolster the lineup next year. But you can’t have enough depth and maybe bringing in a decent, veteran infielder will put the circus that is the Marlins infield on notice that their jobs are not guaranteed.

Might we see Sean Rodriguez battling with his former teammate Reid Brignac for a roster spot in Spring Training? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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