Major League Baseball teams worked out with Yariel Rodriguez on Tuesday afternoon in the Dominican Republic. Among the teams there was the Cincinnati Reds, according to Franches Romero of MLB.com.

Prior to moving to Japan, where he pitched from 2020 to 2022, Rodriguez gained experience as a professional pitcher in Cuba from 2015 to 2020. He opted to get ready to make a run at the major leagues rather than pitch during the 2023 season. Nonetheless, he pitched in the 2023 World Baseball Classic for the Cuban national team.

He made two starts in spring for the Cuban National team, throwing 7.1 innings overall and giving up two runs. He walked six hitters and hit two, indicating poor control. Rodriguez did manage ten strikeouts.

Pitch data from the two starts was presented to us. His splitter registered at 88.9 mph, his slider registered at 83.7 mph and had extremely high spin rates in the WBC, and his fastball averaged 94.9 mph. Both of those have small sample numbers, but it provides a general starting point.

Yariel Rodriguez was Chunichi’s starting pitcher in 2020 and 2021. Over those two seasons, he pitched 23 games and 120.2 innings with a 3.88 ERA, 59 walks, and 128 strikeouts. However, he moved to the bullpen in the 2022 season and tossed 54.2 innings in 56 games, posting a 1.15 ERA. He cranked up 60 strikeouts while giving up just 32 hits, no home runs, and two intentional walks to 18 batters. All of his statistics from Japan and Cuba are available here.

And as we talked about the other day at Redleg Nation, they ought to have an abundance of cash to spend on pretty much anything they choose. We’ll all have to wait and see what teams saw during the workout before deciding what to sign him, but Romero stated on October 5th that he had spoken with a few scouts who claimed they thought he might sign a $50–70 million 5-year contract. But according to the same story, Rodriguez might not be able to sign for a few months.