Rodríguez feeling 'a lot of emotion' about big league debut

PITTSBURGH -- Endy Rodríguez does not cry often. He doesn’t categorize himself as a crier. But as he reclined in his seat on a flight to Pittsburgh, the city where his dreams would evolve into his reality, the tears escaped his eye ducts, regardless of how hard he attempted to contain them.

Not once. Not twice. Three times.

The tears were justified; he was headed to the Majors.

“I was thinking in my mind, ‘Wow. Is this happening?’” Rodríguez recalled.

A couple hours earlier, Rodríguez, the Pirates’ No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, experienced an entirely different range of emotions. When Triple-A Indianapolis manager Miguel Perez announced to the team that Rodríguez would be headed to the Majors, the 23-year-old leapt out of his seat, spun in mid-air and pumped his fist. As with the crying, Rodríguez hadn’t planned on that reaction.

“When I [heard] the news, I don’t know,” Rodriguez recalled. “A lot of emotion. I don’t know how to explain that.”

Rodríguez had a feeling that a callup was on the horizon. Following the All-Star break, Rodríguez started in Indianapolis’s first two games of the second half on Friday and Saturday, but Perez left Rodríguez out of the starting lineup on Sunday, a decision that created suspicion on Rodríguez’s part.

“I said, ‘That’s weird,’” Rodríguez said. “Just two games in a row? No. They got something for me.”

Rodríguez is far from the only 20-something who rode the emotional roller coaster over the past month and a half. Quinn Priester, the club’s No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline, will make his Major League debut on Monday, and appropriately enough, Rodríguez will serve as Priester’s catcher, marking the first time that the Pirates have had both ends of a starting battery debut in the same game since Oct. 3, 1943, when southpaw Cookie Cuccurullo threw to backstop Hank Camelli behind the plate against the Phillies.

“The [con is] that they’re both making their Major League debut, and we have to make sure we manage nerves,” manager Derek Shelton said. “The [pro is] Endy’s caught Quinn a ton, so if anybody knows him, it’s him.”

Rodríguez will have plenty of opportunities to catch Priester and the rest of the starting rotation moving forward. With Jason Delay optioned to Indianapolis, Shelton said that Rodríguez will receive the bulk of playing time at catcher. Austin Hedges, Pittsburgh’s starting catcher up to this point, will transition into catching a few days a week, as well as at the end of games.

“Indy helped me learn about the little things of the game,” Rodríguez said. “Everybody can sit here and catch and call the game, we need to cover [a lot]. As a catcher, I’m learning. Now, I think I got it and I can call [games for] the big league staff. Being a catcher isn’t as simple as everybody thinks.”

As for Henry Davis, the Pirates will “continue to find the situation and timetable of when we think it’s appropriate for him to catch,” per Shelton.

Rodríguez, who Shelton described as über-athletic, played all around the diamond during his Minor League career, seeing time at first base, second base and left field with the organization’s affiliates. There’s a possibility that Rodríguez could play at those secondary positions in the future, but for now, catching will be Rodríguez’s primary focus.

Along with Rodríguez, the Pirates also called up infielder Liover Peguero, the team’s No. 7 prospect. Peguero enjoyed his first soirée in the Majors last season, collecting his first hit and walk in his first career game, but in his second stint with the team, the 22-year-old will likely enjoy more than a one-game cup of coffee.

“It feels amazing, man,” Peguero said. “I've been working really hard to get here again. Just to be here again, it's something really unbelievable, you know what I mean? I feel blessed right now, really lucky to have the opportunity. And [I'm] just trying to do the best I can right now.”

In Pittsburgh, Peguero will be reunited with infielder Nick Gonzales, who made his Major League debut on June 23. Gonzales and Peguero have developed a close relationship over the past couple years, and when Peguero first saw Gonzales prior to the series opener, he didn’t hesitate to express his affection.

“When we were on the way here, somebody was saying something about, ‘Hey, are you excited to see Nick?’” Perguero recalled. “I'm like, ‘I'm going to kiss him on the forehead.’ That's how excited I am, and I did it. I made the video, and it's so funny. I think I'm going to post that on my [Instagram].”

What did Gonzales have to say?

"A little unexpected. I think people were murmuring about it and I was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll see about that. Then, he actually did it. It is Peggy; he will do that. If he says he’s going to do it, he’s going to do it. I should’ve taken him seriously."