Jefry Rodriguez

BIOGRAPHY

Jefry Rodriguez was born July 26, 1993, in Haina, Dominican Republic. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

The Nationals added Rodríguez to their 40-man roster after the 2017 season. In a preseason listing before the start of the 2018 season, MLB Pipeline ranked Rodríguez as the Nationals' 17th-best prospect and suggested he could end up in a late-inning bullpen role. He began the 2018 season with a promotion to the Harrisburg Senators of the Class AA Eastern League. The Nationals called him up to the major leagues for the first time on May 19, placing him on their roster as their 26th man on the day of a doubleheader with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. He saw no action, and the Nationals optioned him back to Harrisburg on May 20.

Rodríguez had appeared in 11 games for Harrisburg, all of them starts, in 2018, posting a record of 4–3 with a 3.88 ERA, 60 strikeouts, and 23 walks in 58 innings, when the Nationals called him up again on June 3. He made his major-league debut that day, entering in relief against the Atlanta Braves at Suntrust Park in Atlanta, Georgia, after Nationals starter Jeremy Hellickson exited the game with a leg injury in the bottom of the first inning after pitching only one-third of a inning. He threw his first major-league warm-up pitches on the mound in front of the Atlanta crowd, then faced Braves star first baseman Freddie Freeman as his first major-league opponent and got Freeman to foul out to third baseman Anthony Rendon on his first pitch. On his next pitch, he gave up a single to Braves right fielder Nick Markakis which allowed a runner he inherited from Hellickson to score an unearned run, but he went on to pitch 4+2⁄3 innings, giving up no other runs and scattering four hits while striking out three Braves and walking two. The first strikeout victim of his career was Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki, whom he struck out twice during the game. The Nationals optioned Rodríguez back to Harrisburg on June 4 before he could make another major-league appearance.

Rodríguez had made 13 starts and pitched 68 innings for Harrisburg during the season, posting a 3.31 ERA for the Senators with 72 strikeouts and 28 walks, when on June 19 the Nationals recalled him to make his second career MLB appearance, first MLB start, and first appearance at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., in that evening's Beltway Series game against the Baltimore Orioles.